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Balmoral  Castle 


SCOTLAND 


HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC 


BY 

MARIA  HORNOR  LANSDALE^ 


ILLUSTRATED 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
Vol.  II 


PHILADELPHIA 

HENRY  T.  COATES  &  CO 
1902 


«Hfc*TNUT  HILL.  M/WS 


Copyright, 
HENRY  T.  COATES  &  CO., 
1901. 


ERKATA— Vol.  II. 


52, 

Line 

4. 

For 

"Alarums"  read  "Alarm." 

150, 

it 

10. 

For 

"1068"  read  "1069." 

157,10th  1.  note.  For 

"protege"  read  "protegee" 

275, 

Line  14. 

For 

"a  mile"  read  "six  miles." 

286, 

u 

15. 

For 

"Loch  Urquhart"  read  "Glen  Urquhart. 

296, 

<( 

25. 

For 

"Balmacarron"  read  "Balmacaan." 

297, 

a 

1. 

For 

"Monaliadh"  read  "Monadhliath." 

319, 

U 

17. 

For 

"Edard"  read  "Edward." 

339, 

a 

12. 

For 

"Murdac"  read  "Madach." 

347, 

U 

22. 

For 

"their"  read  "there." 

354, 

u 

8. 

For 

"Sidland"  read  "Sidlaw." 

361, 

it 

4. 

For 

"ten"  read  "thirteen." 

362, 

u 

6. 

For 

"sixteenth"  read  "sixth." 

427, 

it 

10. 

For  "immediately"  read  "eventually." 

UN 


I 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  X. 

PAGE 


Ayr   1 

CHAPTER  XL 
Lanarkshire  54 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Renfrew,  Dumbarton  and  Stirling  98 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Clackmanan,  Kinross,  Fife  141 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Forfar  or  Angus;  Kincardine  or  the  Mearns; 
Aberdeen  177 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Banff,  Elgin  or  Moray,  Nairn  (Lowland) — Ross  and 
Cromarty,  Sutherland  (Highland) — Caithness, 
Orkney  and  Shetland  (Scandinavian)  230 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Inverness-shire.  285 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Perth  339 

CHAPTER  XVII L 

Argyll,  Bute  and  the  Western  Islands  384 

Index  439 

iii 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Photogravures  made  by  A.  W.  Elson  &  Co. 


PAGE 

Balmoral  Castle  Frontispiece. 

Burns's  Cottage   42 

Auld  Alloway  Kirk   54 

(  Glasgow  Cathedral,  from  Southeast   82 

Dumbarton  Castle,  from  the  Pier   112 

Ben  Lomond  and  Loch  Lomond,  from  Inchtavannach  120 

Rob  Roy's  Grave   128 

Stirling  Castle,  from  Ladies'  Rock   134 

Loch  Leven,  from  Kinross  Shore   148 

Dunfermline  Abbey   154 

Falkland  Palace   160 

Entrance  to  St.  Andrews   170 

Glamis  Castle    180 

Marquis  of  Montrose   190 

Brig  o'  Balgownie,  Aberdeen   206 

Elgin  Cathedral   236 

Sumburgh  Head,  Shetland   282 

Prince  Charlie   300 

Ben  Nevis,  from  Corpach   304 

v 


vi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Culloden  Monument   318 

Pass  of  Killiecrankie   346 

Pass  of  Glenlyon   360 

Ellen's  Isle,  Loch  Katrine   366 

Site  of  Gowrie  House,  Perth   380 

Kyles  of  Bute   396 

Kilchurn  Castle,  Loch  Awe   408 

Macdonald's  Monument,  Glencoe   418 

Fingal's  Cave,  Isle  of  Staffa   432 


Balmoral  Castle 


SCOTLAND 


HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC 


BY 

MARIA  HORNOR  LANSDALE 


ILLUSTRATED 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
Vol.  II 


PHILADELPHIA 

HENRY  T.  COATES  &  CO. 
1902 


Copyright, 
HENRY  T.  COATES  &  CO., 
1901. 


ERRATA— Vol.  II. 


'age 

52, 

Line 

4. 

For 

"Alarums"  read  "Alarm." 

« 

150, 

tt 

10. 

For 

"1068"  read  "1069." 

it 

157, 10th  1.  note.  For 

"protege"  read  "protegee" 

a 

275, 

Line  14. 

For 

"a  mile"  read  "six  miles." 

u 

286, 

(( 

15. 

For 

"Loch  Urquhart"  read  "Glen  Urquhart. 

a 

296, 

tt 

25. 

For 

"Balmacarron"  read  "Balmacaan." 

tt 

297, 

tt 

1. 

For 

"Monaliadh"  read  "Monadhliath." 

it 

319, 

u 

17. 

For 

"Edard"  read  "Edward." 

it 

339, 

tt 

12. 

For 

"Murdac"  read  "Madach." 

it 

347, 

tt 

22. 

For 

"their"  read  "there." 

tt 

354, 

tt 

8. 

For 

"Sidland"  read  "Sidlaw." 

tt 

361, 

it 

4. 

For 

"ten"  read  "thirteen." 

a 

362, 

it 

6. 

For  "sixteenth"  read  "  sixth." 

(< 

427, 

If 

10. 

For 

"immediately"  read  "eventually." 

CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  X. 

PAGE 

Ayr   1 

CHAPTER  XL 
Lanarkshire  54 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Renfrew,  Dumbarton  and  Stirling  98 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Clackmanan,  Kinross,  Fife  141 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Forfar  or  Angus;  Kincardine  or  the  Mearns; 
Aberdeen  177 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Banff,  Elgtn  or  Moray,  Nairn  (Lowland) — Ross  and 
Cromarty,  Sutherland  (Highland) — Caithness, 
Orkney  and  Shetland  (Scandinavian)  230 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Inverness-shire.  285 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Perth  339 

CHAPTER  XVII L 
Argyll,  Bute  and  the  Western  Islands  384 

Index  439 

iii 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Photogravures  made  by  A.  \V.  Elson  &  Co. 


PAGE 

Balmoral  Castle  Frontispiece. 

Burns's  Cottage                                                     .  .  42 

Auld  Alloway  Kirk   54 

Glasgow  Cathedral,  from  Southeast   82 

Dumbarton  Castle,  from  the  Pier   112 

Ben  Lomond  and  Loch  Lomond,  from  Inchtavannach  120 

Rob  Koy's  Grave   128 

Stirling  Castle,  from  Ladies'  Kock   134 

Loch  Leven,  from  Kinross  Shore   348 

Dunfermline  Abbey   154 

Falkland  Palace   160 

Entrance  to  St.  Andrews   170 

Glamis  Castle    180 

Marquis  of  Montrose   190 

Brig  o'  Balgownie,  Aberdeen   206 

Elgin  Cathedral   236 

Sumburgh  Head,  Shetland   282 

Prince  Charlie   300 

Ben  Nevis,  from  Corpach   304 

v 


vi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Culloden  Monument   318 

Pass  of  Killiecrankie   346 

Pass  of  Glenlyon   360 

Ellen's  Isle,  Loch  Katrine   366 

Site  of  Gowrie  House,  Perth    380 

Kyles  of  Bute   396 

Kilchurn  Castle,  Loch  Awe   408 

Macdonald's  Monument,  Glencoe   418 

Fingal's  Cave,  Isle  of  Staff  a   432 


SCOTLAND, 

HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


CHAPTER  X. 

AYR. 

The  long,  curved  stretch  of  territory  that  forms 
the  County  of  Ayr  borders  the  southwestern  Scot- 
tish coast  northwards  from  Wigtown  to  Renfrew, 
along  the  Firth  of  Clyde.  It  had  a  Celtic  popu- 
lation in  its  early  days,  and  became  a  part  of  and 
shared  in  the  vicissitudes  of  the  Strathclyde,  or 
Cumbrian,  Kingdom  after  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
power  in  Britain. 

The  first  great  historical  landmark  that  can  be 
identified  with  Ayr  is  the  battle  of  Largs,  fought  on 
the  2d  of  October,  1263,  when  the  Norse  King  Haco 
made  his  supreme  effort  to  wrest  back  from  the 
Scots  the  possessions  once  held  by  Norway  on  the 
west  coast.  There  had  been  some  fruitless  negotia- 
tions with  Alexander  III.,  and  then  Haco  raised  a 
great  fleet,  manned  it  with  his  brawny  warriors,  and 
set  forth  to  conquer  and  to  recover  his  own.  It  is 
recorded  that  so  bent  was  he  on  the  undertaking  that 

Vol.  II.— 1 


2         SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

even  the  awful  warning  of  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  seen 
at  Orkney  August  25,  whither  he  sailed  first,  failed 
to  deter  him.  Passing  around  by  the  north  and  west, 
and  harrying  the  coast  as  they  went,  the  Norse  host 
finally  cast  anchor  off  Ayrshire.  The  men  of  Ayr 
began  with  negotiations;  but  all  the  time  that  the 
parleying  proceeded  a  strong  though  quite  irregular 
force  was  assembling,  and  moreover  the  time  of  the 
winter  storms  was  approaching.  At  last  these  latter 
broke  out  in  great  fury.  Haco's  fleet  suffered  serious 
damage,  and  some  of  his  galleys  were  driven  ashore 
at  Largs.  The  natives  fell  upon  their  crews  in  over- 
powering numbers.  Haco's  reinforcements,  landing 
in  detachments,  were  defeated,  and  the  *  battle  ended 
with  the  utter  rout  of  the  invaders  and  the  annihila- 
tion of  their  fleet. 

King  Haco  and  a  remnant  escaped  to  Orkney, 
where  he  shortly  afterwards  died.  As  many  of  the 
killed  were  buried  on  the  battle-field,  the  Cromlech, 
called  locally  Haco's  tomb,  most  probably  contains 
some  of  their  bones,  while  others  are  thought  to  lie 
beneath  a  large  mound  in  the  town  itself.  The  battle 
of  Largs  was  a  decisive  one;  it  marks  sharply  the 
close  of  a  period  of  Norwegian  depredation  by  which 
the  Scottish  coast  had  long  been  troubled,  and  from  the 
year  1263  not  one  other  piratical  descent  of  the  men 
of  the  North  is  recorded.  Lady  Wardlaw's  ballad 
of  " Hardy knute"  has  this  event  for  its  theme;  while 
the  scene  is  laid  in  the  ancient  tower  of  the  Fair- 


AYK. 


3 


lies,  whose  ruins  stand  on  Fairlie  Burn,  in  the  Largs 
district.  In  the  town  of  Largs  there  is  a  part  of 
an  ancient  church  whose  north  transept,  called  the 
Skelmorlie  Aisle,  was  put  up  by  Sir  Robert  Mont- 
gomery in  1636,  probably  as  an  enclosure  for  the 
magnificent  Renaissance  monument  he  built  at  the 
same  time  for  himself  and  his  wife,  Margaret  Douglas 
of  Drumlanrig.  "Sir  Hewe  Monggombyrry,"  who 
was  killed  at  Otterburn,  is  also  said  to  be  buried 
there. 

The  whole  of  Cunningham1  was  at  one  time  called 
Largs.  It  formed  a  lordship,  inherited  from  his 
mother  Devorgilla  by  John  Balliol,  King  of  Scot- 
land 1292-1296.  It  was  given  later  to  Walter,  the 
Steward  of  Scotland,  by  his  father-in-law,  Robert 
Bruce,  after  the  abdication  of  Balliol. 

Seagate,  a  ruined  Castle  of  the  Montgomeries,  is 
in  the  town  of  Irvine,  further  up  the  coast ;  and  two 
or  three  miles  north  of  Irvine  is  Eglinton  Castle, 
the  principal  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Eglinton,  which 
came  to  the  Montgomeries  with  the  marriage  of  Sir 
John  Montgomery,  eighth  descendant  of  the  founder 
of  the  family  in  Scotland,  to  the  heiress  of  Sir  Hugh 
de  Eglinton.  Sir  John  and  his  son  Hugh  were 
both  in  the  battle  of  Otterburn,  and  the  latter  was 
killed.  Percy's  spear  and  pennon,  captured  by  him, 
were  however  preserved  as  trophies.    It  is  related 

1  Ayrshire  is  in  three  ancient  divisions — Cunningham,  Kyle  and 
Carrick. 


4         SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 

in  a  memoir  of  the  family  that  "when  the  late  Duke 
of  Northumberland  requested  their  restoration,  the 
late  Earl  of  Eglinton  replied,  '  There  is  as  good  lea 
land  here  as  any  at  Chevy  Chase;  let  Percy  come 
and  take  them.' "  Ardrossan,  six  miles  further 
north,  which  also  came  to  the  Montgomeries  through 
marriage,  was  long  their  chief  stronghold.  It  occu- 
pied a  commanding  position  on  the  coast,  five  or  six 
miles  northwest  of  Irvine.  Here  Wallace  is  said  to 
have  fallen  upon  the  English  garrison,  when  they 
unsuspectingly  sallied  forth  to  quench  a  fire  he  had 
himself  kindled  in  the  adjoining  village.  After  slay- 
ing the  soldiers,  he  cast  them  into  the  Castle  dun- 
geon, which  therefrom  took  the  name  of  "  Wallace's 
Larder."  Ardrossan  Castle  was  leveled  to  the  ground 
by  Cromwell,  and  hardly  any  trace  of  it  now  re- 
mains. 

Almost  all  that  is  known  of  the  life  and  exploits  of 
the  great  Scottish  national  hero,  Sir  William  Wallace, 
is  found  in  the  narrative  of  Henry  the  Minstrel,  popu- 
larly known  as  "  Blind  Harry,"  who  wrote  in  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  whose  rhymed 
account  in  the  vernacular  became  the  niebelungenlied 
of  the  Scottish  peasantry.  Gradually  however,  as 
the  language  changed,  the  poem  grew  obsolete,  and 
there  was  danger  that  the  hero  whom  it  commemo- 
rated might  fade  away  from  the  imagination  of  the 
people.  Then  Hamilton  of  Gilbertfield  in  1722  put 
forth  a  modernized  paraphrase,  which  though  not 


AYR. 


5 


brilliant,  considered  as  a  piece  of  literature,  achieved 
the  end  of  keeping  Wallace's  memory  green  and  the 
main  facts  of  his  life  familiar  to  the  people  of  Scot- 
land. 

William  Wallace  was  the  younger  son  of  Sir  Malcolm 
Wallace  of  Ellerslie,  in  Renfrewshire  (descended  from 
Richard  Wallace  of  Riccarton  on  the  Irvine)  and  Jean 
Crawford,  his  wife.  During  the  troublous  times  that 
preceded  the  War  of  Independence  the  family  broke  up. 
Sir  Malcolm  and  his  eldest  son  took  refuge  in  Dum- 
bartonshire, while  William  accompanied  his  mother 
to  Dundee,  where  he  was  educated.  He  early  became 
embroiled  with  the  English  over-lords,  and  in  a  fray 
in  the  streets  of  Dundee  killed  the  son  of  the  Gov- 
ernor. Shortly  after  this  his  father  and  brother  fell 
in  a  skirmish  with  the  English.  Wallace's  history  for 
the  next  few  years  is  a  constant  succession  of  broils, 
adventures  and  hairbreadth  escapes.  Then  came  his 
marriage  in  1297  to  the  heiress  of  Lamington  and  the 
circumstances  connected  with  her  death,  alluded  to 
elsewhere.  (Blind  Harry  however  differs  from  Wyn- 
toun,  another  early  historian,  in  his  account  of  these 
events.)  Thenceforward  we  find  him  engaged  in 
organized  resistance  to  the  invading  English.  Many 
of  the  early  developments  of  the  national  struggle 
had  their  scene  in  Ayrshire.  The  "  Burning  of  the 
Barns  of  Ayr  "  is  attributed  to  the  summer  of  1 297. 
A  "justice-air"  had  been  ordered  for  the  18th  of  June, 
to  be  held  in  the  Barns  of  Ayr  (i.  e.,  a  barrack,  so  con- 


6         SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

trived  in  this  instance  as  to  allow  of  the  entry  of  but 
one  person  at  a  time).  All  the  leading  Scots  of  the 
neighborhood  were  summoned  to  be  present,  and 
though  greatly  angered  at  so  high-handed  a  measure 
on  the  part  of  the  English,  they  did  attend.  Wallace 
by  a  happy  chance  was  delayed  and  so  escaped  the  fate 
of  his  companions,  all  of  whom  were  seized  as  they 
entered  one  by  one  and  hanged.  His  niece,  "  a  trew 
woman/'  warning  AVallace  of  what  had  happened,  he, 
with  such  a  following  as  he  could  raise,  hid  in  the 
neighboring  Laglane  Wood  till  night,  when  he  sallied 
forth  and  set  fire  to  the  Barns  and  a  number  of  other 
buildings  where  the  English  were  celebrating  their 
exploit  with  wild  revelry.  All  their  efforts  to  escape 
were  useless,  as  the  Scots  guarded  every  approach,  and 
great  numbers  died  horribly.  The  scene,  according 
to  Blind  Harry,  outdid  in  dreadfulness  "  bot  purga- 
tory or  hell." 

While  Ayrshire  was  the  scene  of  many  of  these  early 
adventures,  the  closing  eight  years  of  Wallace's  short 
life  have  to  do  mainly  with  other  parts  of  Scotland. 
Rallying  to  himself  a  band  of  patriots  who  refused 
to  acknowledge  Edward  as  King,  he  drove  the  Eng- 
lish out  of  Glasgow.  Thence  he  marched  rapidly 
through  the  Western  Highlands,  arousing  the  national 
spirit  of  the  country.  Thence  he  went  to  Perth, 
where  he  defeated  an  English  army  at  Scone.  Taking 
possession  of  Perth,  he  marched  to  Aberdeen,  where 
he  burned  a  hundred  English  ships.    From  there  he 


AYR. 


7 


went  to  Dundee  and  began  a  siege,  when  he  learned 
of  the  advance  of  an  army  under  Warenne,  Earl  of 
Surrey,  and  Hugh  Cressingham,  the  Treasurer.  Leav- 
ing Dundee,  he  met  the  English  at  Stirling  Bridge  and 
completely  defeated  them  on  September  11,  1297. 
For  a  while  the  English  were  driven  from  the 
country  and  Wallace  was  elected  Guardian  or  Regent 
of  the  Kingdom.  Many  of  the  great  nobles  rallied 
to  him ;  but  soon  dissensions  arose,  for  they  looked 
upon  Wallace  as  rather  a  parvenu,  and  many  of  them 
left  him  to  make  their  peace  with  King  Edward. 
Yet  a  few  stuck  to  him ;  among  others,  Sir  John  Stew- 
art of  Bonkyll,  Sir  John  Graeme  (both  of  whom  fell 
at  Falkirk)  and  Sir  Andrew  Murray  of  Both  well. 
At  the  end  of  the  year  Wallace  and  Murray  were 
strong  enough  to  lead  an  invading  army  into  Eng- 
land, burning  and  plundering  the  northern  counties. 
Edward,  who  was  absent  in  Flanders  during  these 
events,  patched  up  a  peace  with  France  and  returned 
furiously  angry.  He  marched  a  great  army  to  Scot- 
land and  completely  defeated  Wallace  at  Falkirk  in 
July,  1298,  and  again  overran  the  country.  Wallace 
then  resigned  the  Guardianship  of  the  Kingdom  and 
disappeared  from  Scotland.  He  went  to  France,  it  is 
supposed,  to  ask  assistance  from  the  French  King — 
Philippe-le-Bel.  While  there  he  distinguished  himself 
by  successes  against  pirates  in  the  Mediterranean. 
The  French  King  showed  him  great  distinction,  but 
would  give  him  no  assistance.    He  had  just  become 


8         SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


brother-in-law  to  King  Edward  and  father-in-law  to 
the  Prince  of  Wales.  Wallace  was  back  in  Scotland 
in  1303,  harassing  the  English  at  the  head  of  a  small 
band  of  followers,  but  it  is  not  known  if  he  were  at  the 
battle  of  Eosslyn.1  The  patriot  was  finally  captured  in 
May,  1305,  at  Robroyston,  some  four  miles  northeast 
of  Glasgow,  in  a  house  which  it  is  said  was  not 
destroyed  until  1826.  He  was  betrayed  by  one 
"  Jack  Short,"  believed  to  be  a  Ralph  de  Haliburtoii, 
who  delivered  him  to  Sir  John  Menteith,  an  old  com- 
rade of  Wallace's  and  cousin  germain  to  Sir  John 
Stewart  of  Bonkyll. 

Menteith  was  then  acting  as  Sheriff  of  Dumbarton 
for  King  Edward,  and  it  may  have  been  his  dutv  to 
hand  Wallace  over  to  his  enemies,  but  popular  opinion 
has  ever  denied  this.  For  six  hundred  years  the  name 
of  John  Menteith  has  been  execrated  in  Scotland, 
and  even  to-day  the  feeling  is  strong. 

Wallace,  who  was  but  thirty-five  years  of  age,  was 
carried  to  London  and  tried  for  treason  to  Edward, 
whose  subject  he  never  was.  He  was  condemned 
and  executed  at  Smithfield  August  23,  1305,  with  all 
the  barbarous  formalities  of  the  age.  He  was  hanged 
as  a  robber.  While  still  breathing  he  was  cut  down 
and  his  entrails  torn  out  and  burned  for  sacrilege. 
He  was  then  beheaded  as  an  outlaw,  and  finally  his 
body  was  quartered  for  treason.  His  head  was  fixed 
on  London  Bridge ;  his  right  arm  on  the  bridge  at 
1  See  p.  189,  Vol.  L 


AYR. 


9 


Newcastle;  his  left  arm  was  sent  to  Berwick;  his 
right  leg  and  foot  to  Perth ;  his  left  quarter  to  Aber- 
deen. The  equanimity  with  which  he  bore  his  fate 
excited  the  admiration  of  his  enemies. 

The  death  of  the  leader  was  intended  to  be  the 
final  overthrow  of  the  Scottish  struggle  for  independ- 
ence, any  lingering  dream  of  prolonging  which  it  was 
hoped  would  be  stamped  out  by  the  sight  of  his  dis- 
membered body,  but  the  contrary  was  the  result. 
"Of  the  bloody  trophies  sent  to  frighten  a  broken 
people  into  abject  submission  the  bones  had  not  yet 
been  bared  ere  they  became  tokens  to  deepen  the 
wrath  and  strengthen  the  courage  of  a  people  arising 
to  try  the  strength  of  the  bands  by  which  they  were 
bound,  and  if  possible  break  them  once  and  for  ever." 
Nor  was  the  new  leader  long  wanting. 

Kobert  Bruce,  Earl  of  Carrick  and  Lord  of  Annan- 
dale  (afterwards  King  of  Scotland),  was  an  Ayrshire 
man,  though  he  chanced  to  be  born  in  England  at 
Writtle,  near  Chelmsford,  in  Essex  (1274).  He  was 
the  eighth  in  descent  of  a  family  whose  dual  allegiance 
to  the  Kings  of  England  and  of  Scotland  often  led 
them  into  positions  of  great  perplexity.  All  his  Bruce 
ancestors  with  one  exception  (William)  were  named 
Robert,  and  they  are  thus  often  confused  in  history. 
The  first  Robert  of  history  came  from  Breaux,  near 
Cherbourg,  in  Normandy,  with  William  the  Conqueror, 
who  invested  him  with  enormous  grants  of  land 
chiefly  in  Yorkshire.    His  son  Robert  (2d)  was  one 


10       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

of  the  numerous  Norman  nobles  whom  David  I.  in- 
vited to  Scotland,  and  to  him  he  gave  as  his  second 
wife  the  heiress  of  Strathanand  or  Annandale,  a 
property  inherited  by  Robert  (3d),  that  lady's  eldest 
son.  This  second  Eobert  was  early  put  in  an  em- 
barrassing position.  David,  who  espoused  the  cause 
of  Matilda,  his  niece,  the  daughter  of  Henry  I.,  went 
to  war  with  Stephen,  who  had  been  elected  King  of 
England.  Bruce,  as  an  English  baron,  had  to  follow 
King  Stephen.  He  was  considered  a  suitable  person 
to  negotiate  between  the  combatants,  and  was  sent  by 
Stephen  to  King  David.  His  mission  was  unsuccess- 
ful, but  his  speech  to  the  King  has  been  preserved. 
"  To  see  my  dearest  master,  my  patron,  my  benefactor, 
my  friend,  my  companion  in  arms,  with  whom  I  spent 
the  season  of  youth  and  festivity,  in  whose  service  I 
am  grown  old — to  see  him  thus  exposed  to  the  dan- 
gers of  battle  or  to  the  dishonor  of  flight  wrings  my 
heart."  Both  King  and  noble  burst  into  tears,  and 
Bruce  returned  to  the  English  camp.  His  eldest  son 
Adam  followed  him,  but  his  second  son,  Robert  (3d), 
remained  with  King  David,  who  shortly  afterwards 
was  defeated  at  the  battle  of  Northallerton,  where 
young  Bruce,  fighting  valiantly,  was  taken  prisoner 
by  his  own  father  and  sent  captive  to  King  Stephen. 
That  monarch  kindly  handed  him  over  to  the  care  of 
his  mother.  While  a  prisoner  with  his  parents  he 
was  given  grants  of  land  in  the  north  of  England 
and  inherited  the  lordship  of  Annandale  in  Scotland. 


AYK. 


11 


Adam  Bruce,  elder  brother  of  Robert  (3d),  had  no 
land  in  Scotland  and  remained  an  English  baron. 
Robert  (4th) — son  of  William,  brother  and  heir  of 
Robert  3d — married  Isabella,  a  natural  daughter  of 
William  the  Lion,  and  he  also  received  certain  lands 
and  privileges  in  England  from  King  John.  Robert 
(5th)  married  the  Princess  Isabella,  daughter  of  the 
Earl  of  Huntingdon  (an  English  earldom,  though  a 
Scottish  Prince),  the  brother  of  William  the  Lion, 
and  with  her  he  received  the  lands  of  Hatfield  and 
Writtle  in  Essex,  where  subsequently  King  Robert 
was  born.  He  and  his  wife  died  in  England  and 
were  buried  at  Saltre  Abbey  in  Huntingdonshire. 
Their  son  Robert  (6th)  was  a  competitor  for  the 
crown  of  Scotland,  as  has  already  been  related.  He 
fought  for  Henry  III.,  and  with  that  monarch  was 
taken  prisoner  by  Simon  de  Montfort  and  the  rebel- 
lious barons  at  the  battle  of  Lewes  in  Sussex  in  1 264. 
After  the  Scots'  crown  was  adjudicated  to  Balliol  in 
1292  Bruce  retired  to  his  English  estates,  but  he 
seems  to  have  returned  to  Scotland,  for  he  died  at 
Lochmaben  in  1295  at  the  patriarchal  age  of  eighty- 
five. 

His  son  Robert  (7th)  appears  to  have  lived  the  life 
of  an  English  noble.  He  went  as  a  Crusader  to 
Palestine  with  Edward  I.  in  1270,  and  was  ever  after- 
wards a  great  personal  friend  of  that  sovereign,  who  it 
is  recorded  once  lent  him  £40,  and  in  the  I.  O.  U. 
Edward  styles  him  dilectus  bachelarius  noster  (our 


12       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

dearly  beloved  comrade).  This  7th  Robert  had  a 
crusading  companion,  Adam  of  Kilconquar,  who 
died  in  the  Holy  Land  and  whose  widow  was  in 
her  own  right  Countess  of  Carrick.  When  Bruce 
returned  to  Scotland  in  the  year  1271  the  old  chroni- 
cles relate  that  he  met  this  lady  one  day  when  he 
was  hunting  on  her  lands.  The  widow  at  once  fell 
in  love  with  him  and  asked  him  to  accompany  her. 
On  his  showing  hesitation  she  seized  his  bridle  and 
and  led  him  off  with  some  show  of  violence  to  her 
Castle  of  Turnberry,  where  she  married  him  and 
thus  brought  the  Earldom  of  Carrick  to  the  family 
of  Bruce.1 

Robert  Bruce  (8th),  the  future  King,  was  the  eldest 
son  of  this  marriage.  When  in  1292  the  Scottish 
crown  wras  adjudged  to  Balliol  his  father  resigned  to 
young  Robert,  then  eighteen  years  old,  the  Earldom 
of  Carrick  and  along  with  his  aged  father  retired  to 
England.  Robert  (7th)  remained  Edward's  liegeman 
throughout.  He  attended  the  English  Parliaments, 
accompanied  Edward  L  in  his  expedition  against 
Balliol  in  1296  and  wTas  present  at  the  battle  of  Dun- 
bar. Once  only  it  is  said  did  he  lay  claim  to  the 
crown.    When  Balliol  had  abdicated  he  reminded 

1  Carrick,  which  is  the  old  southern  division  of  Ayrshire,  has 
never  ceased  since  the  accession  of  Bruce  to  be  connected  with  the 
crown ;  the  title  Earl  of  Carrick  has  since  1404  been  borne  by  the 
heir  to  the  Scottish  throne  and  is  one  of  the  titles  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales. 


AYE. 


13 


Edward  of  an  old  promise  to  give  it  to  him.  "  Have 
I  no  other  business  but  to  conquer  kingdoms  for 
you  ?"  replied  the  King.  Bruce  took  the  hint,  retired 
to  England  and  died  there  in  1304. 

Young  Robert  Bruce's  early  career  is  most  perplex- 
ing and  is  difficult  to  explain.  In  1296  he  signed 
fealty  to  Edward  at  Berwick,  and  was  then  in  high 
favor  with  him;  the  King  attests  "the  great  esteem 
he  has  for  the  good  service  of  the  Earl  of  Carrick." 
In  1297  he  renewed  his  fealty  to  Edward  at  Carlisle, 
and  in  Edward's  interest  he  raided  the  lands  of 
Douglas.  The  same  year  he  joined  the  insurgents 
under  Wallace,  fought  against  Edward,  but  capitu- 
lated at  Irvine,  and  was  again  received  into  the  king's 
peace.  In  1 299  he,  along  with  the  Red  Comyn  and 
Lamberton,  Bishop  of  St.  Andrews,  were  made  Guar- 
dians or  Regents  of  Scotland.  He  attacked  Edward's 
garrison  in  Lochmaben  Castle,  and  he  besieged  and 
took  Stirling  Castle.  In  1302  he  is  again  at  peace 
with  Edward  and  attends  his  Parliament.  In  1304 
he  is  in  London,  arranging  his  succession  to  his 
father's  estates;  he  receives  the  King's  thanks  for 
services ;  but  he  also  in  this  year  makes  a  secret 
treaty  with  Bishop  Lamberton  "against  all  men." 
In  1305  he  is  with  King  Edward  at  Westmins- 
ter and  attends  his  Lenten  Parliament;  and  he 
is  probably  a  witness  of  Wallace's  trial  and  execu- 
tion. In  1306  he  is  in  Dumfries,  and  has  slain 
the  Red  Comyn,  his  former  colleague  in  the  Re- 


14       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

geney,  and  six  weeks  later  he  is  crowned  at  Scone. 
What  the  inner  workings  were  that  prompted  these 
to  us  inexplicable  actions  —  why,  in  spite  of  such 
constant  rebellion,  he  was  so  constantly  restored  to 
favor — we  cannot  tell.  It  would  almost  appear  that 
there  were  some  niceties  of  the  feudal  laws,  some 
complications  of  the  dual  nationality,  which  have 
not  come  down  to  us,  but  were  understood  perfectly 
at  the  time,  that  justified  Bruce's  conduct  to  his  con- 
temporaries. In  any  case,  we  find  no  record  of  cen- 
sure at  the  time  for  these  constant  changes. 

What  caused  his  final  step  that  began  with  his 
secret  treaty  with  Lamberton  is  also  not  known. 
Tradition  says  that  after  one  of  the  skirmishes  in 
which  he  took  the  English  part,  when  eating  his 
food  before  washing  off  the  blood  of  the  battle,  he 
was  taunted  by  an  Englishman,  who  said,  "  Look  at 
that  Scotsman,  eating  his  own  blood  ! "  Tradition  also 
says  that  he  was  personally  reproached  by  Wallace.  It 
may  be  that  the  heroic  conduct  of  Wallace  aroused  in 
him  the  remembrance  of  his  Scottish  ancestry  and 
his  lofty  claims ;  his  mother's  blood — the  last  of  a 
long  line  of  Celtic  Earls — his  grandfather's  claim  to 
the  Scottish  throne.  Of  all  this  we  know  nothing ; 
but,  after  taking  the  final  steps  at  Dumfries  and 
Scone,  he  became  the  incarnate  genius  of  Scottish 
nationality.  We  have  already  seen  him  at  Dumfries. 
Thence  he  went  to  Scone  and  was  crowned  on  March 
27.    In  June  he  was  defeated  at  Methven,  near 


AYR. 


15 


Perth;  in  August  defeated  at  Dairy,  in  Perthshire. 
Thence  he  wandered  an  exile  in  the  Highland  wilds, 
down  through  Menteith  to  Loch  Lomond.  Escaping 
by  ship  somewhere  near  Dumbarton,  he  next  made  for 
Cantyre,  and  was  hospitably  received  by  the  Lord  of 
the  Isles.  Thence  he  retired  to  the  island  of  Rach- 
rin — now  called  Rathlin — on  the  north  coast  of  Ire- 
land, where  he  spent  the  winter.  In  the  spring  he 
crossed  to  the  Scottish  island  of  Arran,  from  which 
he  could  see  his  ancestral  home  in  Carrick.  Send- 
ing a  faithful  follower  named  Cuthbert  to  the  main- 
land, to  see  what  chance  he  might  have  to  capture 
his  Castle  of  Turnberry,  that  henchman  found  things 
as  bad  as  could  be.  Had  matters  been  favorable, 
Cuthbert  was  to  light  a  beacon  as  a  signal  to 
come  over;  but  it  was  the  springtime,  when  the 
farmers  were  burning  the  heather,  and  Bruce,  seeing 
a  fire,  took  it  for  the  signal.  Cuthbert  also  seeing 
it,  and  knowing  that  the  King  would  be  deceived, 
met  him  at  the  try  sting-place  and  told  him  of  the 
mistake,  and  implored  him  to  return.  The  King, 
however,  determined  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  his 
Castle,  which  was  held  by  Henry  de  Percy,  an  Eng- 
lish knight.  He  attacked  the  Castle  by  night,  com- 
pletely defeated  the  garrison,  and  drove  Percy  from 
Carrick.  This  was  his  first  success  since  his  corona- 
tion ;  yet  he  was  not  strong  enough  to  take  the  field, 
and  he  retired  to  Glentrool,  in  Galloway,  where  some 
of  his  adventures  have  already  been  narrated.  By 


16 


SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


May,  1307,  he  found  himself  strong  enough  to  risk  a 
pitched  battle,  and  on  the  10th  he  completely  defeated 
the  superior  army  of  Edward's  Governor,  the  Earl  of 
Pembroke,  at  Loudon  Hill,  in  the  east  of  Ayrshire. 
Two  months  later  the  furious  Edward  died,  on  his 
way  to  Scotland  to  attack  him.  Bruce  then  marched 
to  the  north,  and  began  his  series  of  triumphs,  leav- 
ing Douglas  at  that  time  to  maintain  the  national 
cause  in  the  south. 

Having  gone  through  Scotland,  reviving  the  na- 
tional spirit  everywhere,  he  defeated  Cornyn,  Earl  of 
Buchan,  at  Slaines,  in  Aberdeenshire,  in  December, 
1307,  and  again  at  Inverurie  in  the  following  May. 
In  August,  1308,  he  defeated  the  Lord  of  Lorn  at 
Loch  Awe,  in  Argyllshire.  In  February,  1310,  he 
received  the  fealty  of  the  clergy  at  a  general  cotmcil 
at  Dundee.  In  1311  and  again  in  1312  he  invaded 
the  north  of  England.  In  1313  he  took  Perth,  in 
January,  and  leveled  King  Edward's  walls  with  the 
ground.  In  February  his  friend  Douglas  took  Rox- 
burgh Castle.  In  March  his  nephew  Randolph  took 
Edinburgh  Castle,  and  in  June,  1314,  at  the  battle  of 
Bannockburn,  Bruce  finally  delivered  Scotland  from 
the  English  yoke. 

Of  Turnberry  Castle  only  the  scantiest  remains  are 
left ;  they  occupy  a  craggy  point  south  of  Culzean 
Bay.  It  was  the  original  seat  of  the  Earls  of  Car- 
rick,  the  Celtic  Earls  of  Galloway.  Duncan,  grand- 
son of  Fergus,  was  the  first  Earl  of  Carrick ;  his  son 


AYR. 


17 


and  successor  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  Walter, 
the  first  High  Steward  of  Scotland ;  and  their  daugh- 
ter it  was  who  fell  in  love  with  and  married  Robert 
Bruce  (7th),  as  narrated  above. 

Ailsa  Crag,  the  rocky  islet  from  which  the  family 
of  Kennedy,  Earls  of  Cassilis,  take  their  title  of  Mar- 
quis of  Ailsa  in  the  British  peerage,  lies  about  ten 
miles  off  the  coast. 

"  Thy  life  is  but  two  dead  eternities — 
The  last  in  air,  the  former  in  the  deep : 

First  with  the  whales,  last  with  the  eagle-skies — 
Drown'd  wast  thou  till  an  earthquake  made  thee  steep, 
Another  cannot  wake  thy  giant  size." 

So  runs  the  conclusion  of  Keats'  sonnet,  "  To  Ailsa 
Crag,"  written  during  the  walking  tour  made  by  the 
poet  and  his  friend,  Charles  Armitage  Brown,  in  the 
summer  of  1818.  It  was  while  making  this  trip  that 
Keats  laid  the  seeds  of  the  disease  of  which  he  died 
three  years  later.  Somewhat  further  north,  on  Culzean 
Bay,  is  the  modern  Culzean  Castle,  a  huge  building 
covering  three  acres  of  ground,  and  now  the  chief  seat 
of  the  Marquis  of  Ailsa.  The  earlier  Castle  that 
occupied  this  site  was  built  by  Sir  Thomas  Kennedy, 
a  younger  son  of  Gilbert  Kennedy,  third  Earl  of 
Cassilis  and  a  victim  of  "  The  Auchendrane  Tragedy."1 
The  Kennedies  are  a  very  ancient  family  in  Ayr- 
shire.    Dunure,  their  original  seat,  now  in  ruins, 

1  A  feud  between  the  Earl  of  Cassilis  and  the  Mures  of  Auchen- 
drane.   Scott  founded  his  drama,  An  Ayrshire  Tragedy,  upon  it. 
Vol.  II.— 2 


18       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


crowns  an  over-hanging  cliff  a  few  miles  north  of 
Culzean.  David,  third  Lord  Kennedy,  was  created 
Earl  of  Cassilis  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury ;  he  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Flodden,  and  his 
grandson,  who  was  made  prisoner  by  the  English  at 
Solway  Moss,  is  said  to  have  been  entrusted  to  the 
care  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  who  converted  him  to  the 
Protestant  faith.  After  acting  for  some  time  in  the 
interests  of  the  English  and  receiving  a  salary  from 
them,  he  went  over  to  the  French  party  in  Scots 
politics,  and  was  one  of  the  eight  members  sent  by 
Parliament  to  be  present  at  Queen  Mary's  marriage 
to  the  Dauphin.  The  French  were  greatly  incensed  at 
the  refusal  of  these  envoys  to  bestow  the  crown-matri- 
monial upon  the  Dauphin,  and  singular  to  narrate, 
three  of  them  died  in  one  night,  the  Earl  of  Cassilis 
among  them.  His  body  was  brought  home  and  buried 
in  Maybole  Collegiate  Church,  founded  in  1371  by 
Sir  John  Kennedy  of  Dunure,  and  the  first  establish- 
ment of  the  kind  in  Scotland.  It  is  still  standing  in 
a  semi-ruinous  condition  and  is  used  by  the  Kennedies 
as  a  burial-place.  Gilbert,  the  fourth  Earl  of  Cas- 
silis, fought  at  the  battle  of  Langside  for  the  Queen, 
but  contrived  to  make  his  peace  afterwards  with  the 
Protestant  Lords.  It  was  this  personage  who  carried 
off  Allan  Stewart  the  Commendator,  from  Crossraguel 
Abbey  to  Dunure  Castle  in  1570,  and  there  required 
him  to  sign  papers  conveying  away  all  the  abbey 
lands.    The  Commendator  said  he  would  not  sign, 


AYR. 


19 


whereupon  the  Earl  had  a  huge  fire  lighted  in  one  of 
the  vaults  and  suspended  him  over  it.  Before  the 
Churchman  was  quite  done,  however,  Kennedy  of 
Bargany  arrived  with  a  force  and  delivered  him.  Cas- 
silis, who  for  the  past  six  years  had  held  the  lands  in 
lease,  succeeded  by  some  other  means  in  forcing  Stew- 
art to  resign  them  absolutely  ;  the  latter  is  said  never 
to  have  recovered  from  his  "  roasting,"  but  to  have 
been  maimed  for  life.1  Crossraguel  Abbey,  whose 
ruins  are  still  standing  between  Girvan  and  Maybole, 
was  founded  by  Duncan,  Earl  of  Carrick,  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  twelfth  century  —that  is,  he  gave  the 
Cluniac  Monks  of  Paisley  certain  lands,  on  the  con- 
dition of  their  founding  a  house  of  their  order  in 
Carrick.  The  last  Abbot  was  a  brother  of  the  Earl 
of  Cassilis — that  Quintin  Kennedy  who  for  three  days 
held  a  public  disputation  with  John  Knox  in  the  Pro- 
vost's house  at  Maybole  in  1562. 

Cassilis  Castle,  the  other  great  seat  of  the  Kenne- 
dies, stands  on  the  Doon,  a  few  miles  to  the  northeast 
from  Maybole.  It  formerly  belonged  to  the  Mont- 
gomeries,  but  having  fallen  to  aane  lass,"  she  was 
made  the  object  of  the  stormy  wooing  of  the  Laird  of 
Dairy mple,  who  actually  besieged  her  in  her  own 
house  to  force  her  to  marry  him.  She  was  defending 
herself  with  great  spirit  when  Kennedy  of  Dunure 
came  to  the  rescue,  and  after  beating  off  Dalrymple 
induced  the  lady  to  take  him  instead.  The  Kennedies 
1  See  Notes  to  Ivanhoe,  Chap.  xxii. 


20       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

made  it  their  chief  residence,  and  it  is  still  in  the 
family.  The  town  house  of  the  Earls  of  Cassilis  was 
Maybole  Castle,  commanding  the  town  of  May  bole 
from  the  east.  It  is  in  good  preservation  and  is  occu- 
pied by  Lord  Ailsa's  factor.  At  the  west  of  the  main 
street  stands  the  Tolbooth  Tower,  once  a  part  of  the 
Castle  of  the  Laird  of  Blairquhan. 

Bargany,  a  seventeenth  century  mansion,  built  out 
of  the  materials  of  the  old  Castle  near  by,  stands  on 
the  Girvan,  only  a  few  miles  from  the  coast.  "A 
mighty  commodious  House  ;  and  if  any  make  a  greater 
shew  and  appearance,  yet  it  has  the  advantage  of  them 
for  contrivance  and  accommodation."  It  is  now  the 
property  of  the  Earl  of  Stair.  The  chief  seat  of  the 
Kennedies  of  Bargany  was  Ardstinchar  Castle,  whose 
scanty  remains  stand  near  the  shore  on  a  rocky  emi- 
nence near  Ballantrae  village. 

The  Bargany  Kennedies  are  buried  in  what  was  once 
an  aisle  of  a  sixteenth  century  church  in  Ballantrae. 
There  is  seen  the  fine  tomb  of  the  young  Kennedy, 
who  was  killed  in  the  feud  alluded  to  on  page  17. 

Loch  Doon  Castle  (thirteenth  century)  is  built  upon 
a  rocky  islet  in  Loch  Doon.  It  was  to  this  strong- 
hold that  Sir  Christopher  Seton  fled  after  Bruce' s 
defeat  at  Methven.  He  was  present  at  the  stabbing 
of  Comyn,  and  also  attended  the  coronation  of  Bruce 
shortly  aftenvards  at  Scone,  and  was  therefore  a 
marked  man.  The  Castle  was  held  at  the  time  by 
its  hereditary  keeper,  Sir  Gilbert  de  Carrick,  who  is 


AYE. 


21 


charged  with  needlessly  surrendering  it  to  the  English 
and  betraying  Sir  Christopher.  The  latter  was  taken 
to  Dumfries  and  promptly  executed. 

Fifteen  or  twenty  miles  north  of  Loch  Doon  is 
Auchinleck  (pronounced  Affleck)  Castle,  chiefly  inter- 
esting as  having  been  the  seat  of  the  Boswell  family 
since  early  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  first  Bos- 
well of  Auchinleck  died  on  Flodden  Field.  There 
are  buildings  or  parts  of  buildings  belonging  to  four 
different  periods — first  there  is  the  ruin  of  the  ancient 
keep,  which  occupied  a  lofty  rock  at  the  junction  of 
two  burns ;  then  the  seventeenth  century  and  eight- 
eenth century  mansions,  and  finally  the  one  now  used 
by  the  family,  built  about  a  hundred  years  ago  to 
supersede  that  visited  by  James  Boswell  and  Dr. 
Johnson  in  1773.  The  then  Lord  Auchinleck  (Bos- 
welPs  father)  is  said  to  have  been  "a  man  of  profound 
judgment,  with  a  considerable  taste  for  the  olden 
literature  of  the  country,"  but  he  "entertained  no 
great  respect  for  Dr.  Johnson  ...  he  expressed  his 
contempt  for  the  great  lion  of  literature  by  designating 
him  'a  dominie,  an  auld  dominie ;  he  keeped  a  schule 
and  called  it  an  academy.'' " 

Some  miles  above  Kilmarnock,  on  Kilmarnock 
Water,  are  the  ruins  of  Dean  Castle,  the  seat  of  the 
Boyds,  Earls  of  Kilmarnock,  descended  from  a 
brother  of  Walter,  the  first  High  Steward  of  Scot- 
land. The  Castle  was  burned  in  1733  through  the 
carelessness  of  a  servant,  and  the  Earl,  who  was 


22       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


abroad  at  the  time,  learned  of  his  misfortune  through 
a  newspaper.  Twelve  years  later  he  went  out  in  the 
'45  and  was  one  of  the  prisoners  taken  on  the  field  at 
Culloden.  "  He  was  soon  after  led  along  the  lines  of 
the  British  infantry,  in  which  his  eldest  son  (Lord 
Boyd),  then  a  very  young  man,  held  the  commission 
of  an  ensign.  The  Earl  had  lost  his  hat  in  the  strife, 
and  his  long  hair  was  flying  in  disorder  around  his 
head  and  over  his  face.  The  soldiers  stood  mute  in 
their  lines  beholding  the  unfortunate  nobleman. 
Among  the  rest  stood  Lord  Boyd,  compelled  by  his 
situation  to  witness,  without  the  power  of  alleviating, 
the  humiliation  of  his  father.  AVhen  the  Earl  came 
past  the  place  where  his  son  stood,  the  youth,  unable 
to  bear  any  longer  that  his  father's  head  should  be 
exposed  to  the  storm,  stepped  out  of  the  ranks  Avith- 
out  regard  to  discipline,  and  taking  off  his  own  hat, 
placed  it  over  his  father's  disordered  and  wind-beaten 
locks.  He  then  returned  to  his  place  without  having 
uttered  a  word."1  The  Earl,  together  with  Lord 
Balmerino  and  the  Earl  of  Cromarty,  was  tried  before 
the  House  of  Lords  in  July  of  the  same  year;  he 
and  Lord  Balmerino  were  executed  on  Tower  Hill 
August  18,  1746.  "Among  the  individuals,  in  num- 
ber seventy-seven,  executed  for  their  share  in  the  insur- 
rection of  1745-6  the  Earl  of  Kilmarnock  was  the  only 
one  that  confessed  guilt  or  expressed  repentance." 2 

1  Chambers'  History  of  the  Rebellion  of  1745-46. 

2  Tales  of  a  Grandfather. 


AYR. 


23 


Rowallan  Castle,  on  the  banks  of  Carmel  Water, 
was  anciently  the  stronghold  of  the  Mures  of  Row- 
allan and  the  home  of  Elizabeth  Mure,  whose  mar- 
riage to  Robert  II.  was  the  cause  of  much  genealogi- 
cal controversy. 

Elizabeth  was  related  to  Robert,  then  the  High 
Steward,  afterwards  King,  within  the  degrees  of  con- 
sanguinity wherein  marriage  was  forbidden  by  old 
canon  law,  except  with  papal  dispensation.  She  had 
long  been  the  Steward's  mistress  and  had  borne  him 
several  children.  Subsequently  Robert  married  her, 
an  act  which  by  Scottish  law  in  ordinary  circum- 
stances legitimizes  all  children  born  before  wedlock. 
This  marriage  and  the  legitimacy  of  his  successors 
was  long  a  matter  of  doubt,  but  in  1789  a  papal  bull 
of  dispensation  sanctioning  the  marriage  was  found  in 
the  Vatican,  dated  November  1 2, 1 347.  This  discovery 
however  did  not  end  the  fierce  controversy  that  had 
long  raged  among  Scottish  antiquaries.  Riddell,  a 
very  respectable  authority,  maintained  that  it  was 
beyond  the  power  of  the  Pope  himself  to  legitimize 
ex  post  facto  the  offspring  of  a  connection  inherently 
illegal;  and  if  the  Stuart  right  to  reign  rested  on 
legitimacy  alone  the  whole  race  of  royal  Stuarts  could 
not  be  accounted  the  legal  heirs  to  the  throne.  This 
point  had  however  been  provided  for  by  two  decrees 
of  Parliament,  the  first  (1371)  declaring  Lord  John, 
Earl  of  Carrick  (Robert  III.)?  heir  to  the  throne ;  the 
second  (1373)  limiting  the  succession  to  the  Earl  of 


24       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Carrick  and  his  full  brothers  and  the  heirs  male  of 
their  bodies. 

The  descendants  of  Robert  II.  by  his  second  wife 
Euphemia  Ross  could  not  forget  however,  that  the 
succession  of  the  elder  branch  rested  upon  a  doubtful 
claim.  And  this  fact  had  an  influence  in  bringing 
about  the  murder  of  James  L  (1437),  two  of  the 
leading  perpetrators  being  the  King's  uncle,  Walter 
Stewart,  Earl  of  Atholl  (son  of  Euphemia  Ross),  and 
Sir  Robert  Stewart,  the  EarPs  grandsou.  When  the 
first  of  these  was  executed  for  his  share  in  the  crime 
an  iron  crown  was  placed  on  his  head  in  scorn  of  his 
supposed  pretensions  to  the  throne.  The  Mures  of 
Covenanting  times  were  active  Presbyterians  and  the 
Castle  took  the  nickname  of  the  Auld  Kirk  from  the 
conventicles  held  there. 

Robert  II.  when  High  Steward  was  a  near  neigh- 
bor of  the  Mures,  and  in  order  to  conduct  his  wooing 
he  had  but  to  ride  over  from  his  own  Castle  of  Dun- 
don  aid  (which  was  but  ten  or  twelve  miles  distant), 
whose  gloomy  ruins  may  now  be  seen  crowning  a 
steep  hill  in  the  northern  part  of  the  parish  of  the 
same  name. 

When  in  1371  the  High  Steward  succeeded  his 
mother's  half-brother  David  II.  on  the  Scottish  throne 
Dundonald  became  a  royal  Castle,  as  is  witnessed  to- 
day by  the  representations  on  the  west  wall  of  the 
lion  of  Scotland  and  the  Stewart  arms. 

Early  in  the  eighth  century  a  pious  missionary  from 


AYR. 


25 


Ireland,  Winnin  by  name,  landed  on  the  Ayrshire  coast 
somewhere  near  Ardrossan ;  he  soon  became  famous 
as  a  healer,  and  the  church  of  the  neighborhood  was 
named  for  him  after  his  death.  Several  hundred  years 
later  the  noble  Priory  of  Kilwinning  was  erected  on  the 
same  site,  it  is  usually  said  by  Sir  Hugh  de  Morville, 
Constable  of  Scotland  and  the  founder  of  Dry  burgh 
Abbey.  A  deep  glen  separates  it  from  the  Auchans 
estate,  owned  by  the  Earl  of  Eglinton,  and  the  home 
in  the  eighteenth  century  of  Susanna  Kennedy,  the 
celebrated  Dowager  Countess  to  whom  Allan  Ramsay 
dedicated  the  "Gentle  Shepherd/'  and  who  was  so 
charmed  with  Dr.  Johnson,  when  he  and  Boswell 
waited  upon  her  in  1773,  that  she  embraced  him  at 
parting,  claiming  him  for  an  adopted  son. 

The  Monks  called  Tyronesians,  from  Tyron  in 
France,  where  their  order  was  first  established,  were 
brought  from  Kelso.  The  last  and  most  famous  of 
the  Abbots  was  Gavin  Hamilton,  Queen  Mary's  de- 
voted supporter,  who  was  killed  at  Restalrig  in  an 
encounter  between  the  forces  of  the  Queen  and  those 
of  the  Earl  of  Morton.  "The  south  gable  of  the 
transept  and  one  of  its  finely  proportioned  arches,  a 
Saxon  gateway  and  some  mouldering  walls  are  the 
only  indications  and  memorials  now  extant  of  the 
once  splendid  results  of  superstitious  piety  and  Italian 
art."  The  last  words  refer  to  an  especially  interesting 
feature  connected  with  Kilwinning — the  circumstance 
that  it  was  the  reputed  birthplace  in  Scotland  of  the 


26       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Order  of  Free  Masons.  Corporations  of  Italian 
builders  and  workmen  had  been  created  at  Rome 
with  peculiar  privileges,  notably  the  power  "of 
settling  the  rates  and  prices  of  their  labor  by  their 
own  authority  and  without  being  controlled  by  the 
municipal  laws  of  the  country  where  they  worked. 
To  the  various  northern  countries  where  the  churches 
had  fallen  into  decay  were  these  artists  deputed.  In 
consequence  of  the  exclusive  privileges  conferred  upon 
them  they  assumed  to  themselves  the  name  of  Free 
Masons,  and  under  this  title  became  famous  through- 
out Europe."  1  In  1736,  when  Lord  Roslin,  heredi- 
tary Grand  Master,  resigned  the  office  for  himself  and 
his  heirs,  the  whole  Scottish  organization  of  the  order 
was  changed. 

North  of  Kilwinning  on  the  Garnock  River  is  the 
Church  of  Kilbirnie,  once  attached  to  the  Priory.  It 
was  the  burial-place  of  the  Craufurds  of  Kilbirnie 
and  the  Cunninghams  of  Glengarnock,  the  ruins  of 
whose  Castles  are  within  a  mile  or  so  of  the  village. 
It  contains  the  tomb  of  Captain  Thomas  Craufurd2  of 
Jordan  Hill. 

Without  attempting  to  speak  particularly  of  any 
more  of  the  ancient  Castles  and  ecclesiastical  remains 
of  Ayrshire  it  may  be  well  now  to  take  a  rapid  glance 

1  Kilwinning's  claim  to  priority  in  this  connection  has,  however, 
been  called  in  question.  (See  History  of  Free  Masonry,  R.  F.  Gould.) 

2  The  hero  in  the  famous  capture  of  Dumbarton  Castle  in  the 
year  1671. 


AYR. 


27 


at  the  two  associations  which  render  that  county 
especially  conspicuous  in  the  history  of  Scotland — the 
Covenanters  and  Robert  Burns. 

Although  Queen  Mary  counted  among  her  most 
devoted  and  faithful  adherents  representatives  of  some 
of  the  leading  Ayrshire  families,  it  is  noteworthy  that 
the  Reformation  there  took  an  earlier  hold  and  ad- 
vanced more  rapidly  than  in  almost  any  other  county 
of  Scotland.  This  is  sometimes  attributed  to  the 
settlement  in  Kyle  of  a  colony  of  exiled  Waldenses — 
"the  Lollards  of  Kyle"  they  were  called — who  so  dis- 
seminated their  doctrines  that  when  Wishart  in  1543, 
and  Willock  and  Knox  on  two  occasions  each,  made 
preaching  tours  through  the  West  Country  they  found 
the  people  of  Ayr  predisposed  to  give  them  a  ready 
and  a  hearty  hearing.  Knox  died  in  1572,  and  1581, 
the  fourteenth  year  of  James  VI.'s  reign,  was  the 
date  of  the  National  Covenant.  This  National 
Covenant,  often  termed  the  King's  Confession,  was 
designed  to  league  King,  nobles  and  people  together 
at  a  time  of  terror  when  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew was  fresh  in  the  memory,  when  the  League  was 
triumphant  in  France,  and  Philip  of  Spain  was  pre- 
paring to  crush  the  Protestantism  of  England. 

In  1638  Scotland  was  again  in  a  state  of  terror, 
this  time  not  from  the  Pope,  but  from  the  attempts  of 
Charles  I.  and  Laud  to  Anglicize  the  old  Church  of 
Scotland.  The  National  Covenant  was  renewed  by 
the  advice  it  is  said  of  Sir  Archibald  Johnston  of 


28 


SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Warriston,  the  most  eminent  lawyer  of  his  time  and 
a  man  of  fervent  though  austere  piety.  The  formal 
signing  of  the  document  took  place  at  the  Greyfriars' 
Church  in  Edinburgh  in  1638  amid  scenes  of  extra- 
ordinary enthusiasm.1  John  Campbell,  Earl  of  Lou- 
don, an  Ayrshire  nobleman,  made  a  stirring  address 
in  its  favor,  and  the  heads  of  the  ancient  Ayrshire 
houses  of  Eglinton  and  Cassilis  were  present  on  the 
occasion.  One  of  its  most  fervent  supporters  at  this 
time  was  the  great  Montrose.  Except  in  the  North, 
all  Scotland  became  Covenanters  and  prepared  for 
war.  The  following  year  (1639)  Episcopacy  was  for- 
mally abolished  by  the  Scots'  Parliament,  to  which 
King  Charles  was  perforce  obliged  to  agree.  Two 
years  later  (1641)  the  terrible  Irish  Rebellion  oc- 
curred, followed  by  dreadful  massacres  and  disorders, 
in  which  Ireland  it  is  said  lost  one-third  of  her  popu- 
lation. Meantime  the  English  troubles  increased,  the 
civil  war  broke  out  and  in  September,  1643,  the  King 
had  made  peace  with  the  Irish  and  had  arranged  for 
an  Irish  army  to  join  him  in  England.  Both  Eng- 
land and  Scotland  were  convulsed  with  indignation.2 
The  recollection  of  the  terrible  atrocities  by  the  Irish 
rebels  was  still  fresh  in  the  memory,  and  to  bring 
them  over  to  mix  in  English  quarrels  seemed  barbar- 
ous. The  English  Parliament  appealed  to  the  Scots 
Covenanters  for  military  help  and  of  their  own  ac- 

i  See  p.  65,  Vol.  I. 

a  This  is  the  motive  of  the  early  part  of  the  novel  John  Inglemnt. 


AYR. 


29 


cord  offered  to  take  the  Scottish  Covenant.  Scotland 
agreed,  and  "  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant "  was 
signed  at  Westminster  on  September  25,  1643.  The 
following  January  the  Scots,  according  to  agreement, 
sent  an  army  into  England,  to  which  in  May,  1646, 
Charles  surrendered  himself  at  Newark,  and  which  in 
January,  1647,  gave  up  the  King  to  the  Parliamentary 
army.  It  was  while  this  Scots  army  was  in  England 
under  General  Alexander  Leslie  that  Montrose,  who 
had  been  gained  over  to  the  King,  made  his  brilliant 
campaign,  which  ended  so  disastrously  in  his  defeat  at 
Philiphaugh  by  General  David  Leslie. 

The  "  Solemn  League  and  Covenant "  was  a  docu- 
ment very  much  the  same  as  the  old  Scottish  Covenant, 
but  additions  had  to  be  made  to  suit  the  English  con- 
ditions. A  pledge  was  added  to  "  extirpate  prelacy, 
superstition,  heresy,  schism,"  etc.,  and  thus  England 
became  by  Act  of  Parliament  Covenanting  and  Pres- 
byterian. 

The  Covenant  was  eminently  monarchical ;  it  pro- 
tested its  loyalty  "to  His  Majesty's  Government 
which  by  the  descent  and  under  the  reign  of  107 
[Scottish]  Kings  is  most  cheerfully  acknowledged." 
It  was  to  the  English  Covenanters,  professedly  mon- 
archical, that  the  Scots  army  had  given  up  Charles, 
but  the  English  Sectaries  soon  ousted  the  Presby- 
terians and  triumphed  over  both  King  and  Covenant. 

While  Charles  was  a  prisoner  in  the  Isle  of  Wight 
he  found  means  to  communicate  with  the  more  mod- 


30       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


erate  Covenanter  leaders,  and  having  found  it  impos- 
sible to  collect  or  rally  the  scattered  Cavaliers,  he  sur- 
reptitiously arranged  with  the  Scots  to  confirm  the 
Covenants,  establish  Presbytacy  and  extirpate  the 
Sectaries.  The  Scottish  leaders  on  their  part  engaged 
to  send  an  army  to  rescue  the  King.  In  fulfillment  of 
this  treaty,  known  as  the  "  Engagement,"  the  Duke 
of  Hamilton  led  an  army  into  England,  but  it  was 
met  by  Cromwell  in  Lancashire  and  defeated  in  battle 
at  Preston  (August  18,  1648).  The  Sectary  Inde- 
pendents in  England  brought  the  King  to  trial  and 
execution  on  January  30,  1649. 

Meantime  the  less  moderate  Covenanters  took  fright 
at  the  "  Engagement,  "  and  fearing  lest  the  Covenant 
should  be  compromised,  their  leader,  the  Marquis  of 
Argyll,  raised  an  army  of  his  own  clansmen  and  some 
seven  thousand  Covenanter  peasants  of  Ayrshire  and 
the  Western  Counties,  marched  to  Edinburgh  and  took 
possession  of  the  Government.  This  coup  was  known 
as  the  Whigamore's  Raid,  from  a  name  applied  to  these 
Ayrshire  peasants,  who  used  the  word  "  whiggam  " — 
"  get-on  " — when  they  urged  their  horses.  The  inci- 
dent is  chiefly  interesting  as  from  that  time  the  word 
in  its  shortened  form — "  Whig  " — was  applied  to  the 
Presbyterian  zealots,  and  in  a  few  years  the  nickname 
came  to  be  applied  generally  to  the  popular  party  in 
politics,  as  opposed  to  the  aristocratic  or  conservative 
party.1 

!The  word  "Tory,"  as  applied  to  the  aristocratic  party,  arose 


AYR. 


31 


The  "Engagement,"  which  ended  so  disastrously, 
infuriated  the  English  Parliament  with  whom  the 
King  was  then,  though  a  prisoner,  negotiating.  It 
was  the  last  straw.  Charles  was  removed  to  London, 
tried  and  executed.  The  same  tribunal  condemned 
the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  who  was  executed  two  months 
after  his  Sovereign. 

At  once  the  Scottish  Presbyterians,  always  mon- 
archical, opened  negotiations  with  Charles  II.,  then  in 
Holland,  asking  him  to  accept  the  Covenant  and  come 
and  reign  over  them.  But  the  young  King  was 
arranging  with  Montrose  for  an  expedition  into  Scot- 
land and  evaded  their  invitation.  Montrose's  inva- 
sion went  on,  but  failed  miserably,  and  the  great  Mar- 
quis was  executed  in  May,  1650.  Another  deputation 
sought  Charles  at  Breda  ;  the  throne  of  Scotland  was 
offered  to  him,  if  he  would  sign  the  Covenant. 
Charles  wriggled  and  did  what  he  could  to  avoid  it, 
but  even  his  courtiers  advised  him  to  submit,  remind- 
ing him  of  the  opinion  of  his  grandfather,  Henri  Quatre, 
that  Paris  was  well  worth  a  Mass,  and  Scotland  must 
indeed  be  a  wretched  country  if  it  were  not  worth  a 
Covenant.  Charles  consented,  and  had  the  miserable 
humiliation  of  signing,  not  only  the  old  National 

some  thirty  years  later,  from  a  rather  similar  origin.  It  is  a  corrup- 
tion of  an  Irish  word,  meaning  an  outlaw,  and  at  the  time  of  the 
Popish  Plot  (1676)  associated  with  the  name  of  Titus  Oates,  it  was 
applied  to  the  Popish  allies  of  the  Cavalier  party  and  very  rapidly 
became  a  nickname  for  the  whole  party. 


32       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Covenant  which  condemned  his  mother's  "idolatry,'' 
but  also  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  which  re- 
iterated his  father's  backslidings  and  blood-guiltiness. 
He  landed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Spey  in  June,  1650. 
Cromwell  marched  to  Scotland  and  utterly  defeated 
the  Covenanting  army  at  Dunbar  on  September  3. 
Charles  retired  first  to  Dunfermline,  and  later  to 
Perth.  He  was  crowned  at  Scone  on  January  1, 1651, 
the  Marquis  of  Argyll,  the  great  Covenanting  leader, 
putting  the  crown  on  his  head  with  his  own  hands. 
At  the  ceremony  the  King  had  for  a  second  time  to 
sign  the  hated  Covenants.  In  the  midst  of  his  Pres- 
byterian court  he  was  more  like  a  State  prisoner  than 
a  crowned  Sovereign.  Johnston  of  Warriston,  his 
"  Lord-Clerk  Register,"  rebuked  him  for  his  ungodly 
life,  a  liberty  which  Charles  never  forgave.  Once  the 
young  King  was  seen  playing  cards  by  a  devout  lady 
who  lived  opposite  his  lodging.  The  commission  of 
the  Kirk  deputed  one  of  their  number  to  rebuke  him. 
He  was  an  old  man  and  a  wise  one.  No  doubt  he 
was  smitten  with  pity  at  the  incongruity  of  the  inci- 
dent ;  his  admonition  took  the  practical  form  of  ad- 
vising that  the  next  time  his  Majesty  played  cards  he 
should  take  care  to  shut  his  window.  Bored  to  death, 
one  day  the  King  was  missing,  and  he  was,  after 
much  searching,  found  in  Athole  and  brought  back. 
Then  an  army  was  raised,  which  eluded  Cromwell  and 
entered  England.  Cromwell  quickly  started  in  pur- 
suit, caught  it  up  at  Worcester,  and  completely  de- 


AYR. 


33 


feated  it  on  September  3,  1651.  Charles  escaped  to 
the  Continent,1  and  Scotland  had  to  submit  to  Crom- 
well. The  English  Sectaries  kept  the  peace  in  Scot- 
lan4  with  a  contemptuous  indifference  to  religious  dis- 
putes so  long  as  there  was  no  insurrection.  The  key- 
note to  Cromwell's  policy  is  found  in  a  letter  to  the 
General  Assembly  (August  3,  1650)  in  which  he 
writes :  "  I  beseech  you,  in  the  bowels  of  Christ, 
think  it  possible  you  may  be  mistaken,"  advising  the 
ministers  at  the  same  time  to  read  Isaiah  xxviii.,  5 
to  15. 

In  1660  came  the  Eestoration.  The  country  was 
so  intoxicated  with  joy  that  it  seemed  as  if  the  Scots 
would  do  anything  for  the  King.  Charles  remem- 
bered his  bondage  of  1650-51.  He  said  Presbyteri- 
anism  was  no  fit  religion  for  a  gentleman.  It  must 
be  suppressed.  Episcopacy  was  established  by  Parlia- 
ment in  May,  1661.  The  fate  of  the  Covenants  was 
soon  settled;  in  1662  they  were  declared  illegal ;  in 
1682  an  oath  was  imposed  specially  renouncing  them  ; 
in  1685  it  was  declared  high  treason  to  take  them. 

The  government  of  Scotland  was  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale  and  Lord  Middleton,  hated 
rivals  and  both  renegade  Covenanters.  Sharp,  who 
had  betrayed  the  Presbyterian  Church,  was  Arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews  and  Primate  of  Scotland. 
Persecution  began  early.    The  first  victim  was  the 

1  Charles'  escape  is  the  subject  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  novel,  Wood- 
stock. 

Vol.  II.— 3 


34       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Marquis  of  Argyll,  the  great  head  of  the  Cove- 
nanters, who  with  his  own  hands  crowned  King 
Charles  in  1650.  The  legal  pretext  was  his  submis- 
sion to  Cromwell,  but  the  real  reason  was  fear  of^his 
power  and  revenge  for  the  death  of  Montrose.  He 
was  executed  in  Edinburgh  on  the  same  day  that 
Episcopacy  was  proclaimed.  The  next  notable  victim 
was  Sir  Archibald  J ohnston  of  Warriston,  on  the  same 
pretext — submission  to  Cromwell ;  some  minor  leaders 
also  suffered. 

Parish  ministers  were  ordered  to  submit  to  the 
Bishops,  yet  to  the  Government's  amazement  about 
four  hundred  of  them  gave  up  their  livings  rather 
than  do  so,  and  were  driven  from  their  parishes. 
Fines  were  imposed  on  all,  lay  and  clergy,  who  would 
not  conform ;  and  what  was  worse,  soldiers  were  bil- 
leted on  the  unfortunate  recusants  to  live  at  free 
quarters  until  the  fines  were  paid.  The  studied  inso- 
lence of  the  troops  was  felt  even  more  than  the 
pecuniary  suffering. 

The  first  collision  took  place  in  the  uplands  where 
Ayrshire,  Galloway  and  Lanarkshire  meet,  always  a 
great  resort  of  the  Covenanters.  In  November,  1666, 
the  soldiers  forced  some  neighbors  to  come  to  thresh 
an  old  " honest  man's"  corn  in  order  that  the  fines 
might  be  realized.  Word  came  that  the  old  man  was 
being  abused  and  tortured.  Other  "  honest  men  n  went 
to  his  rescue  and  in  the  scuffle  one  soldier  was  wounded 
and  the  others  surrendered.    The  captors  took  to  the 


AYR. 


35 


hills  and  were  soon  joined  by  some  three  thousand 
Nonconformists.  They  determined  to  march  on  Edin- 
burgh. The  little  army  was  met  on  the  Pentlands  by 
General  Dalzell  and  completely  defeated  at  Rullion 
Green  on  November  28/  and  immediately  the  jails 
and  the  gibbet  were  crowded  with  victims.2 

The  next  landmark  in  the  movement  was  the  "  In- 
dulgence" of  1669.  When  the  Presbyterian  ministers 
were  driven  from  their  charges,  their  places  had  been 
filled  by  Episcopalian  incumbents,  called  at  the  time 
"the  curates."  They  were  chiefly  young  men  from 
the  North  of  Scotland,  who  as  a  rule  had  none  of  the 
gifts  which  the  Scots  then  considered  necessary  in  the 
clergy — personal  piety,  eloquence  and  learning.  They 
were  indeed  the  laughing  stock  of  the  country  and 
Burnett,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  admits  that  they  were 
the  worst  preachers  he  ever  heard. 

Naturally  the  people  hated  to  attend  their  services 
and  preferred  following  their  ousted  ministers  to  the 
fields,  to  meetings  which  came  to  be  known  as  "  Con- 
venticles" or  "Field-preachings,"  and  which  were 
pronounced  illegal.  Yet  the  Government  recognized  a 
certain  justice  in  the  proceeding,  and  by  the  "  Indul- 
gence" of  1669  the  "outed"  ministers,  who  had  lived 
peaceably  and  orderly,  were  allowed  to  return  to  their 
parishes  to  preach  in  their  churches,  but  they  were  not 

1  See  pages  76  and  163,  Vol.  I. 

a  The  Pentland  Rising  is  the  subject  of  one  of  the  earliest  works 
of  R.  L.  Stevenson. 


36       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

restored  to  their  temporalities,  although  arrangements 
were  made  for  their  maintenance.  At  the  same  time 
a  new  and  severer  act  was  passed  against  conventicles 
— any  one  either  preaching,  praying  or  attending  them 
might  be  punished  with  death  and  confiscation  of  his 
goods. 

Many  of  the  clergy  accepted  this  Indulgence  and 
became  the  objects  of  contempt  to  the  more  fervent 
Presbyterians,  who  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
this  "  trafficking  with  Satan,"  and  went  on  their  way 
as  before.  It  is  these  last  who  stood  persecution  and 
torture  rather  than  make  any  compromise  with  a  Non- 
covenanting  Government,  who  are  generally  meant 
when  the  "  Scottish  Covenanters  "  are  referred  to. 

Three  years  later  a  second  Indulgence  followed, 
with  no  happier  results,  and  conventicles  continued  as 
before,  especially  in  Ayrshire  and  the  southwest.  The 
Government  thought  that  the  local  magistracy  did  not 
properly  enforce  the  laws  against  the  recusants,  and 
in  1679  they  quartered  a  force  of  about  ten  thousand 
West  Highlanders  at  free  quarters  in  the  western 
shires.  At  that  time  the  employment  of  wild  High- 
landers by  civilized  powers  was  looked  upon  in  the 
same  way  as  the  employment  of  red  Indians  in  the 
white  men's  quarrels  was  in  America  a  hundred  years 
later.  Yet  it  is  to  the  credit  of  both  sides  that  in  the 
three  months  occupation  of  the  "  Highland  Host,"  as 
it  was  called,  there  was  practically  no  bloodshed,  the 
only  death  being  that  of  one  Highlander  in  a  scuffle. 


AYR. 


37 


Still  the  harassment  was  terrible,  and  the  Celts  retired 
from  the  lowlands  laden  with  spoil  looted  from  the 
western  counties. 

In  1679  came  the  murder  of  Archbishop  Sharp, 
and  the  struggle  became  more  acute.  Those  attending 
the  conventicles  now  went  out  armed.  It  was  about 
this  time  that  John  Graham  of  Claverhouse  appeared 
on  the  scene  as  captain  of  a  troop  of  horse  and  with 
certain  civil  powers  in  Galloway  and  Dumfriesshire. 
The  persecution  received  a  fresh  impetus  from  his 
im tiring  activity.1 

Now  followed  the  Covenanters'  victory  over  Clav- 
erhouse at  Drumclog  (June  1,  1679),  and  their  hope- 
less defeat  at  Both  well  Brig  three  weeks  later.  With 
Claverhouse  began  "  The  Killing  Time,"  by  which  the 
Scottish  people  mean  the  nine  years  from  1679  to 
1688,  though  more  particularly  the  culmination  of 
the  persecution  in  1684  and  1685.  So  loosely  was 
the  law  now  administered  that  four  test  questions 
might  be  put  by  even  common  soldiers — (1)  Was  the 
affair  at  Bothwell  rebellion?  (2)  Was  the  killing  of 
Archbishop  Sharp  murder  ?  (3)  Will  you  pray  for  the 
King?  (4)  Will  you  renounce  the  Covenant?  An 
unsatisfactory  answer  meant  imprisonment  or  often  a 
bullet  through  the  head. 

In  1680  came  Richard  Cameron's  Sanquhar  Dec- 
laration of  war  against  Charles  II.,  after  which  time 

1  This  period  is  the  time  depicted  by  Scott  in  his  novel  Old 
Mortality. 


38       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

the  "  hill  folk  "  were  continuously  in  armed  insurrec- 
tion. 

In  1682  Scotland  had  become  so  uninhabitable  for 
freedom-loving  men  that  thirty-six  leading  nobles 
and  gentlemen,  including  the  Earls  of  Callendar  and 
Haddington,  Lords  Cardross  and  Yester,  and  others, 
negotiated  with  the  colonial  authorities  of  Carolina 
for  a  large  tract  of  land,  to  which  they  might  retire 
with  their  followers;  but  having  had  dealings  with 
the  Whig  leaders  in  England,  who  were  falsely 
accused  of  complicity  in  the  Rye  House  Plot  (for 
which  Lord  William  Russell  and  Algernon  Sydney 
died),  the  combination  was  broken  up  and  the  move- 
ment collapsed.  For  alleged  complicity  in  this  plot, 
Robert  Baillie  of  Jerviswood,  a  Covenanter  of  old 
family  and  of  the  highest  character,  was  dragged  from 
his  dying  bed,  tried  and  executed  on  Christmas  Eve, 
1684.    He  was  the  last  Covenanter  of  rank  to  suffer.1 

When  in  1685  the  Roman  Catholic  James  ascended 
the  throne,  a  relaxation  came.  In  order  to  remove 
Catholic  disabilities  freedom  of  worship  was  given  to 
all  sects ;  but  from  this  toleration  the  armed  conven- 
ticle of  the  Cameronians,  as  the  Covenanters  were 
called  after  1680,  was  especially  excepted;  and  this 
can  be  little  wondered  at,  after  the  Sanquhar  Declara- 

1  Baillie  of  Jerviswood  was  brother-in-law  of  Johnstone  of  War- 
riston.  His  son  and  successor  married  Lady  Grizel  Hume.  (See 
p.  234,  Vol.  I.)  From  them  are  descended  the  present  Earls  of  Had- 
dington, whose  family  name  is  Baillie  Hamilton. 


AYE. 


39 


tion,  of  their  leader,  James  Renwick,  which  renounced 
allegiance  to  the  king.  The  end  came  with  the 
Revolution  of  1688,  when  James  fled,  and  William 
and  Mary  obtained  the  throne. 

Naturally  many  tales  of  suffering  and  persecution 
during  this  long  period  survive  in  the  southwestern 
counties.  Lochgoin,  in  the  Fenwick  Moors  of  Ayr- 
shire, is  one  of  the  spots  especially  full  of  these 
associations.  From  Lochgoin  farm-house,  which  com- 
manded an  extensive  view  across  the  moors,  the 
approach  of  the  soldiers  could  be  seen  from  afar; 
while  the  neighboring  uneven  ground  and  moss-hags 
afforded  convenient  hiding-places  for  the  proscribed. 
The  family  of  Howie,  who  occupied  the  farm-house, 
were  originally  religious  refugees  from  the  Conti- 
nent ;  so  that  with  them  endurance  for  conscience 
sake  was  a  principle  bred  in  the  bone,  and  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  name  in  the  persecuting  times  were 
ready  to  suffer  every  hardship  for  their  religion.  It 
is  said  that  their  house  was  plundered  no  fewer  than 
twelve  times.  There  is  a  story  of  one  night,  when 
the  house  was  filled  with  men  who  had  taken  part  in 
the  Pentland  Rising,  old  Howie  had  a  thrice-repeated 
dream  of  meeting  soldiers  of  General  Dalzell,  coming 
to  search  the  place.  Finally  he  sent  some  one  to 
look  if  there  were  signs  of  approaching  danger,  when, 
sure  enough,  a  body  of  troopers  was  observed  so 
close  at  hand  that  the  occupants  had  barely  time  to 
escape  to  the  moors. 


40       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

The  author  of  the  Scots  Worthies,  the  great  record 
of  Covenanting  heroes  (1774),  was  a  descendant  of 
this  family,  and  at  a  later  day  Lochgoin  became  a 
place  of  pilgrimage  partly  on  that  account  and  partly 
by  reason  of  its  numberless  traditions  of  Covenanting 
times  and  the  collection  of  relics  preserved  there — the 
sword  and  Bible  of  Captain  Paton,  executed  in  conse- 
quence of  having  held  commands  both  at  Pentland 
and  Both  well  Brig,  a  banner  and  drum  carried  by  the 
men  of  Fen  wick  into  action  and  other  objects  of  a 
similar  kind  endued  with  a  sacred  and  thrilling 
interest  for  those  brought  up  on  accounts  of  the  suffer- 
ings and  heroic  fortitude  of  their  countrymen. 

Of  all  the  stories  of  this  time  none  perhaps  is  so 
familiar  as  that  of  John  Brown  of  Priesthill,  in  the 
east  of  Ayrshire,  called  in  from  the  fields  and  shot 
down  in  the  presence  of  his  wife  and  young  child  by 
Claverhouse  after  a  brief  interrogatory.  As  this  story 
is  I  believe  nowhere  denied,  it  must  be  accepted  as  a 
fact,  and  in  truth  the  violence  of  the  detestation  in 
which  the  name  of  John  Graham  of  Claverhouse  was 
and  still  is  held  in  the  South  and  West  of  Scotland, 
where  he  had  civic  and  military  command  during  the 
last  years  of  Charles  II.'s  reign,  must  be  accounted 
for  in  a  solid  foundation  of  facts.  It  is  however  a  little 
difficult  to  form  an  estimate  of  the  character  of  a 
being  who  is  described  on  the  one  hand  as  a  "  relent- 
less ruffian,"  the  "  Devil  with  an  angel's  face,"  who 
"swept  across  the  western  and  southern  counties  like  a 


AYR.  41 

demon  of  destruction  guiding  an  exterminating  whirl- 
wind. Torture,  rapine  and  murder  marked  his  path. 
Those  who  fled  were  hunted  down  and  shot  in  the 
fields,  and  those  whose  age  or  sex  rendered  them  in- 
capable of  flight  were  tortured,  abused  and  butchered 
by  their  own  hearthsides,"  1  etc.  While,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  read  that  he  was  "  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished men  and  gallant  soldiers  of  his  age,  .  .  .  stain- 
less in  his  honor,  pure  in  his  faith,  wise  in  council, 
resolute  in  action  and  utterly  free  from  that  selfishness 
which  disgraced  the  Scottish  statesmen  of  the  time."  2 
No  doubt  the  truth  lies  somewhere  between  the 
"  Bloody  Cla verse  "  of  Presbyterian  writers,  and  the 
"  Bonny  Dundee,"  the  "  Conquering  Graeme"  and  the 
"Gallant  Claverhouse"  of  the  ballads  of  Scott  and 
Aytoun,  and  indeed  there  is  no  difficulty  in  supposing 
him — according  to  the  standards  of  the  day — brave, 
dauntless,  astute  and  free  from  all  taint  of  self-seek- 
ing, and  at  the  same  time  possessed  of  a  complete 
disregard  for  human  life  and  an  utter  unscrupulousness 
in  the  discharge  of  what  he  conceived  to  be  his  duty. 
It  was  his  boast  that  "  in  any  service  I  have  been  in 
I  never  inquired  further  in  the  laws  than  the  orders 
of  my  superior  officers."  Graham  of  Claverhouse 
was  in  fact  the  executive  officer — the  executioner,  if 
you  will — of  the  worst  government  that  ever  disgraced 
Scotland. 

1  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  Rev.  W.  M.  Hetherington. 
7  Aytoun.    Introduction  to  the  Lays  of  the  Scottish  Cavaliers. 


42       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

When  the  Eevolution  came  the  Presbyterian  Sys- 
tem was  restored  and  the  Episcopalian  incumbents 
were  ejected.  Naturally  the  poor  curates  complained, 
but  it  is  universally  admitted  that  the  ejectments  were 
conducted  with  a  humanity  which  could  hardly  have 
been  expected  from  those  who  had  so  long  been 
hunted  and  harried.  It  was  done  in  a  steady  business 
way ;  no  individual  was  allowed  to  act  lest  he  might 
take  the  opportunity  of  avenging  some  private  wrong. 
The  ejectments  were  carried  out  systematically  by 
committees.  There  was  no  dubiety  however  in  the 
proceedings.  Each  incumbent  was  told  that  the  house 
of  God  must  be  no  longer  a  den  of  thieves ;  that  he 
must  no  longer  exercise  ministerial  functions ;  that 
the  key  of  the  church  must  be  given  up  on  a  certain 
date,  and  the  document  finished  with  a  simple  warn- 
ing :  "  If  you  refuse  you  shall  be  forced  to  do  it." 
There  is  no  record  of  one  drop  of  blood  being  shed 
in  this  transference  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction. 
Though  the  Presbyterian  System  was  again  estab- 
lished, the  Covenant  was  not  renewed  by  the  Church ; 
yet,  as  has  already  been  stated,  it  survives  among  the 
body  of  the  strict  Cameronians,  who  still  exist  in 
Scotland ;  by  them  the  Covenant  is  still  subscribed. 

It  was  into  the  Scotland  whose  standards  and  man- 
ners, and  habits  of  thought  and  life,  had  been  moulded 
by  seventy  years  of  this  ecclesiastical  dominion  that 
the  poet  of  the  Scottish  people  was  born  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1759.    The  event  took  place  in  a 


Burns's  Cottage 


AYR. 


43 


"  rough  clay  bigging  "  (cottage)  at  Alloway,  two  miles 
south  of  Ayr.  One  wild  night  shortly  afterwards  a 
part  of  this  cottage  fell  down,  obliging  the  little  family 
of  three— William  Burnes  or  Burns,  his  young  wife 
and  their  week-old  son  Robert — to  go  out  into  the 
storm  and  seek  shelter  elsewhere. 

If  one  is  on  the  lookout  for  omens,  they  are  no 
doubt  to  be  found  to  fit  the  after  fate  of  every  new- 
born genius,  but  the  picture  of  Robert  Burns,  barely 
arrived  in  the  world  and  driven  forth  into  the  storm 
by  the  wretchedness  of  circumstances,  is  not  without 
significance  as  the  opening  act  of  his  tempest-tossed 
life. 

Of  the  early  years  of  that  life,  the  one  baneful 
and  blighting  circumstance  was  its  poverty ;  in  other 
respects  Burns  had  better  fortune  than  many  another 
man  of  genius.  Of  his  father  it  is  impossible  to 
read  without  admiration  and  respect.  He  was  relig- 
ious and  sober-minded,  but  neither  hard  nor  narrow ; 
he  toiled  with  unyielding  self-sacrifice  to  give  his  sons 
an  education,  and  he  paid  them  the  compliment  of 
treating  them  as  reasonable  beings  and  companions, 
talking  to  them,  writes  Gilbert,  "as  if  we  had  been 
men,"  and  encouraging  them  to  form  and  express 
their  opinions  fearlessly.  Robert's  mother,  whom  he  is 
said  to  have  taken  after  in  manner  and  appearance, 
delighted  his  imagination  with  the  legends,  traditions 
and  ballads  with  which  her  mind  was  stocked ;  and 
anything  that  this  branch  of  his  training  might  have 


44       SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 

lacked  was  abundantly  supplied  by  one  Betty  David- 
son, an  elderly  relative  of  Mrs.  Burns,  who  used 
occasionally  to  come  on  visits,  and  who  had  "the 
largest  collection  in  the  country  of  tales  and  songs 
concerning  devils,  ghosts,  fairies,  brownies,  witches, 
warlocks,  spunkies,  kelpies,  elf  candles,  dead-lights, 
wraiths,  apparitions,  cantraips,  giants,  enchanted 
towers,  dragons,  and  other  trumpery." 

For  their  education  proper,  apart  from  what  they 
got  from  their  father,  the  boys  had  for  a  time  the 
services  of  a  well-educated,  intelligent  and  zealous 
young  man  named  John  Murdoch,  who  was  employed 
by  a  number  of  the  farmers  of  the  neighborhood  to 
teach  their  children.  They  clubbed  together  to  pay 
him  his  salary,  and  entertained  him  by  turns  in  their 
cottages.  For  books  they  had  free  access  to  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments,  Mason's  Collection  of  Prose  and 
Verse,  some  school  books,  the  Life  of  Hannibal,  and 
The  History  of  Sir  William  Wallace.1  And  a  little 
later  Robert  was  able  to  borrow  from  kindly-disposed 
people  in  the  town  of  Ayr  volumes  covering  quite  a 
wide  range.  History,  fiction,  poetry,  theology,  agri- 
culture, the  drama — all  are  more  or  less  well  repre- 
sented in  the  list  he  himself  furnishes,  which  for  a 

1  Hamilton  of  Gilbertfield's  paraphrase  of  Blind  Harry,  which 
did  such  patriotic  work  in  keeping  the  hero  alive  in  the  hearts  of 
the  Scottish  peasantry.  Burns  himself  says  of  this  book,  it  "  poured 
a  tide  of  Scottish  predjudice  into  my  veins  which  will  boil  there  till 
the  floodgates  of  life  shut  in  eternal  rest." 


AYR. 


45 


very  poor  peasant  lad,  and  more  than  a  century  and 
a  quarter  ago,  is  certainly  not  a  bad  one. 

The  Alloway  cottage  is  still  standing,  tourist- 
haunted,  and  converted  into  a  conventional  show- 
place.  There  is  probably  no  better  way  to  do,  but 
most  of  us  would  far  rather  choose  never  to  see  the 
rooms  in  which  Burns'  childhood  was  passed  than  to 
procure  that  experience  by  paying  twopence  and 
being  shoved  through  a  turnstile. 

Further  down  on  the  road  leading  across  the  Auld 
Brig  of  Doon  into  Kyle  stands  Alloway  Kirk,  a  ruin 
in  Burns'  boyhood  days,  and  popularly  supposed  to 
be  haunted.  It  was  endeared  to  him  by  many  asso- 
ciations, and  in  its  kirkyard  his  father  lies  buried ;  so 
when,  many  years  later,  Captain  Grose  came  to  Scot- 
land for  materials  for  his  Antiquities,  Burns  asked 
him  to  include  a  drawing  of  Alloway  Kirk.  This 
Grose  agreed  to  do,  on  the  condition  of  Burns  writing 
something  to  accompany  it.  He  recalled  the  tradi- 
tions he  had  heard  in  his  childhood,  and  composed 
"Tarn  o'  Shanter;"  and  that  is  how  this  roaring 
bacchanalian  piece  came  to  be  published  in  a  sober 
antiquarian  work  like  Grose's.  The  captain  does  not 
himself  appear  to  see  anything  incongruous  in  its 
introduction  there,  to  judge  from  the  following  note, 
which  appeared  in  the  first  edition  of  his  book :  "  To 
my  ingenious  friend,  Mr.  Robert  Burns,  I  have  been 
seriously  obligated ;  he  was  not  only  at  the  pains  of 
making  out  what  was  most  worthy  of  notice  in  Ayr- 


46       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

shire,  the  county  honoured  by  his  birth,  but  he  also 
wrote,  expressly  for  this  work,  the  pretty  tale  annexed 
to  Alloway  Church." 

When  Robert  was  still  but  a  slip  of  a  boy — i.  e.,  at 
Whitsuntide,  1766 — his  father  rented  the  neighboring 
Mount  Oliphant  Farm  from  Mr.  Ferguson,  whom  he 
had  been  serving  as  gardener,  borrowing  £100  from 
his  employer  to  stock  it  with.  The  venture  proved  a 
distressing  failure,  owing  to  the  poor  quality  of  the 
land  and  the  death  of  Mr.  Ferguson,  which  left  Wil- 
liam Burns  at  the  mercy  of  an  unprincipled  factor. 
After  eleven  grinding  years  he  therefore  removed  to 
the  Lochlea  Farm,  about  two  miles  from  the  neigh- 
boring village  of  Tarbolton. 

Those  years  at  Mount  Oliphant  probably  exercised 
a  more  serious  influence  upon  Robert's  future  than  at 
first  appears.  It  was  mere  accident  that  he  there 
acquired  most  of  his  education.  Such  would  have 
been  the  case  wTherever  he  might  have  chanced  to  pass 
that  period  of  his  life ;  and  had  the  particular  "  bonnie 
swreet,  sonsie  lass  "  not  been  at  hand  who  first  awak- 
ened in  him  the  eager  tremulousness  of  love,  and  drove 
him  to  verse  for  its  expression,  no  doubt  some  other 
would  have  served  the  purpose  quite  as  well.  But  it 
seems  not  unreasonable  to  charge  to  the  ungrateful 
Mount  Oliphant  soil — which  entailed  such  heavy  labor 
on  all  the  family,  with  the  attendant  under-feeding 
and  under-sleeping  endured  by  Robert  at  the  critical 
growing  age — the  seeds  of  that  weakness  that  later  un- 


AYR. 


47 


fitted  his  great  frame  to  meet  the  demands  he  made 
upon  it,  and  killed  him  at  thirty-seven. 

It  must  have  been  shortly  after  the  removal  to 
Lochlea  that  he  made  that  famous  excursion  into  the 
mysteries  of  mensuration  that  was  the  means  of  intro- 
ducing him  to  other  branches  of  knowledge,  some  of 
them  unfortunately  of  a  less  admirable  kind.  He 
was  seventeen  when  he  spent  a  summer  at  the  Kirk- 
oswald  School,  on  the  coast,  where  he  was  thrown  into 
the  society  of  a  wild  set  of  seafaring  men,  smugglers 
and  others,  from  whom,  in  the  words  of  that  oft- 
quoted  sentence  in  his  autobiography,  he  learned  "  to 
look  unconcernedly  on  a  large  tavern  bill,  and  to  mix 
without  fear  in  a  drunken  squabble."  But  it  was  there 
also  that  he  got  access  to  the  works  of  several  new 
authors  (new  that  is  to  him)  and  studied  the  art  of 
polite  letter-writing,  using  for  his  guide  a  volume  of 
letters  written  by  wits  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne ; 
and  thus — in  his  own  judgment  at  all  events — he  re- 
turned from  Kirkoswald  "very  considerably  im- 
proved." 

The  seven  years  at  Lochlea  are  usually  spoken  of 
as  the  happiest  of  Burns'  life.  During  the  earlier 
part,  at  all  events,  his  family  circumstances  mended  a 
little  and  he  had  leisure  to  learn  a  variety  of  things, 
to  fall  in  and  out  of  love  with  dizzy  rapidity,  to  write 
poems  ("The  Death  of  Poor  Mailie,"  "Mailie's 
Elegy,"  "  John  Barleycorn  "  and  "  Winter  :  a 
Dirge,"  are  all  among  those  written  at  Lochlea),  to 


48       SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 

dance — this  against  his  father's  expressed  wishes — and 
to  be  the  best  hand  at  the  plow  or  on  the  threshing 
floor  in  the  whole  country-side. 

Then  came  the  Irvine  episode — six  months  spent  in 
another  coast  town,  this  one  considerably  north  of 
Ayr  and  further  afield  than  he  had  hitherto  been. 
The  plan  was  that  he  should  learn  flax-dressing  from 
a  half-brother  of  his  mother's  who  lived  there,  but 
the  experiment  turned  out  disastrously.  During  a  New 
Year  revel  the  shop,  with  all  it  contained,  burned  to 
the  ground,  and  Burns — who  had  in  the  meantime 
made  a  new  acquaintance  whose  loose  morals  he  ad- 
mits himself,  "did  me  a  mischief " — returned  home 
sans  money,  sans  trade  and  sans  virtue. 

Two  years  later  William  Burns  died  of  consump- 
tion, a  lingering  illness  which,  with  a  lawsuit,  ruined 
him.  The  family  immediately  removed  to  Mossgiel 
Farm,  in  Mauchline  parish.  Of  this  new  venture 
Gilbert  writes  :  "  It  was  stocked  by  the  property  and 
individual  savings  of  the  whole  family  and  was  a 
joint  concern  among  us.  Every  member  of  the 
family  was  allowed  ordinary  wages  for  the  labor  he 
performed  on  the  farm.  My  brother's  allowance  and 
mine  was  £7  per  annum  each,  and  during  the  whole 
time  this  family  concern  lasted,  as  well  as  during  the 
preceding  period  at  Lochlea,  Robert's  expenses  never, 
in  any  one  year,  exceeded  his  slender  income."  Not- 
withstanding the  conditions  of  hard,  unremitting  toil 
involved  by  such  a  statement,  it  was  during  the  Moss- 


AYR. 


49 


giel  years  that  Burns  produced  most  of  the  works  by 
which  he  is  best  known.  Owing  to  the  lively  interest  he 
took  in  a  war  then  waging  between  the  severely  ortho- 
dox and  the  more  liberal-minded  clergy  of  the  neighbor- 
hood— in  which  his  warm  friend  Gavin  Hamilton  was 
also  concerned — these  early  productions  took  the  form 
of  religious  satires.  "  Holy  Willie's  Prayer,"  "  The 
Holy  Fair,"  and  a  number  of  other  less  famous 
pieces,  were  written  then  and  "  read  into  repute "  by 
Mr.  Aiken,  a  writer  of  Ayr,  with  whom  he  had 
formed  an  intimate  friendship.  Of  "  The  Holy 
Fair "  Lockhart  writes :  "  It  was  acknowledged, 
amidst  the  sternest  mutterings  of  wrath,  that 
national  manners  were  once  more  in  the  hands 
of  a  national  poet  .  .  .  that  the  muse  of  '  Christ's 
Kirk  on  the  Green*  had  awakened,  after  the  slumber 
of  ages,  with  all  the  vigor  of  her  regal  youth  about 
her,  in  '  the  auld  clay  biggin '  of  Mossgiel." 

These  satires  were  shortly  followed  by  many  of  the 
most  popular  of  his  poems,  "  The  Epistle  to  Davie," 
"  The  Mouse,"  "  The  Mountain  Daisy,"  "  The  Cot- 
ter's Saturday  Night,"  etc.,  and  all  the  time  he  was 
carrying  on  a  succession  of  love  affairs  and  inditing 
poems  to  each  fair  one  in  turn.  The  more  serious 
episode  of  Highland  Mary,  whom  he  expected  to 
marry,  but  who  died  suddenly  shortly  before  the  ap- 
pointed time,  occurred  during  the  Mossgiel  life,  and  it 
was  there  that  he  first  met  Jean  Armour,  who  later 
became  his  wife. 
Vol.  II.— 4 


50       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

It  is  to  the  unfortunate  circumstances  of  this  con- 
nection that  the  first  edition  of  The  Poems  is  due. 
The  birth  of  twin  children,  for  whom  he  was  utterly- 
unable  to  provide,  determined  Burns  to  migrate  to  the 
West  Indies,  and  in  order  to  raise  the  passage  money 
he,  on  the  advice  of  his  friends,  arranged  with  a 
printer  of  Kilmarnock  to  strike  off  six  hundred  copies 
of  the  various  poems,  which  in  a  very  limited  circle 
had  already  become  so  popular.  Their  success  came 
like  a  gratifying  surprise,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
suggested  to  the  author  or  to  his  advisers  that  some 
occupation  nearer  home  and  more  congenial  might  be 
found  for  him  than  the  position  of  assistant  overseer 
on  a  AVest  Indian  plantation.  "As  soon,"  he  writes, 
"as  I  was  master  of  nine  guineas,  the  price  of  waft- 
ing me  to  the  torrid  zone,  I  took  a  steerage  passage 
in  the  first  ship  that  was  to  sail  from  the  Clyde.  .  .  . 
I  had  taken  the  last  farewell  of  my  friends ;  my  chest 
was  on  the  way  to  Greenock ;  I  had  composed  the  last 
song  I  should  ever  measure  in  Caledonia, '  The  Gloomy 
Xight  is  Gathering  Fast/  when  a  letter  from  Dr.  Black- 
lock  to  a  friend  of  mine  overthrew  all  my  schemes  by 
opening  new  prospects  to  my  poetic  ambition."  These 
"new  prospects"  were  nothing  less  than  a  suggestion 
that  a  new  edition  of  The  Poems  would  be  likely  to 
meet  with  success. 

Dr.  Blacklock,  the  Blind  Poet,  "  belonged  to  a  set 
of  critics  for  whose  applause  I  had  not  dared  to  hopjeP 
His  letter  of  unqualified  praise,  written  in  reply  to 


AYR. 


51 


one  from  Dr.  Lawrie  (a  minister  and  a  warm  friend  of 
Burns),  in  which  the  latter^s  prospects  were  set  forth, 
arrived  just  in  the  nick  of  time.  The  emigration 
scheme  was  abandoned,  and  two  months  later  Burns,  in 
high  spirits,  set  off  for  Edinburgh.  With  his  subse- 
quent career  Ayrshire  has  but  brief  connection.  After 
that  brilliant  winter  in  the  Capital  he  made  a  tour 
through  some  of  the  Border  Counties ;  then  came  other 
stays  in  Edinburgh  and  other  excursions,  with  occa- 
sional visits  to  Mossgiel,  where  his  mother  was  caring 
for  his  child.  It  had  been  entirely  due  to  the  action 
of  Jean  Armour's  father  that  Burns  had  not  made  her 
his  wife  long  ere  this,  old  Armour  actually  obliging 
her  to  destroy  the  written  promise  of  marriage  given 
to  her  by  Burns.  There  had  now,  however  (Decem- 
ber, 1787),  been  a  renewal  of  the  intercourse  between 
them,  and  the  distressing  circumstances  into  which  her 
approaching  confinement  threw  her  induced  Burns 
not  only  to  provide  her  with  a  temporary  home  then, 
but  to  marry  her  in  the  following  April  before  a 
Justice  of  the  Peace,  in  the  chambers  of  his  old  friend, 
Gavin  Hamilton,  at  Mauchline.  Ellisland  was  then 
rented  from  Mr.  Miller,  of  Dalswinton,  and  there  he 
took  his  family  (there  was  but  one  child  living).  That 
part  of  his  history  which  has  to  do  with  Dumfriesshire 
and  his  death  there  have  already  been  described.  The 
Mossgiel  house  is  still  standing,  in  many  respects  a 
more  agreeable  object  of  pilgrimage  than  Allowav. 
Mauchline  Castle,  where  Gavin  Hamilton  lived,  and 


52       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


"Poosie  Nansie's"  house  are  also  still  to  be  seen,  and 
in  the  kirkyard  lie  Johnnie  Richmond,  in  whose 
house  Burns  staved  when  he  first  went  to  Edinburgh, 
"Daddie  Auld,"  of  "the  Kirk's  Alarums,"  Gavin 
Hamilton  and  William  Fisher,  who  stood  for  the 
portrait  of  "Holy  Willie,"  as  well  as  two  of  Burns' 
infant  children  and  some  of  his  wife's  relations,  the 
Armours.  She,  fond  woman  and  faithful  wife,  lies 
beside  the  husband  whom  she  loved  and  served  with 
a  truer-hearted  devotion — one  cannot  but  think — than 
would  have  any  one  among  all  that  galaxy  of  Fair, 
Clarinda  not  excepted,  on  whom  his  wayward  fancy 
lighted.  "  A  true  poet,"  writes  Carlyle,  "  a  man  in 
whose  heart  resides  some  effluence  of  wisdom,  some 
tone  of  the  i  Eternal  Melodies/  is  the  most  precious 
gift  that  can  be  bestowed  on  a  generation.  We  see  in 
him  a  freer,  purer  development  of  whatever  is  noblest 
in  ourselves ;  his  life  is  a  rich  lesson  to  us ;  and  we 
mourn  his  death  as  that  of  a  benefactor  who  loved 
and  taught  us. 

"  Such  a  gift  had  nature  in  her  bounty  bestowed  on 
us  in  Robert  Burns,  but  with  queen-like  indifference 
she  cast  it  from  her  hand,  like  a  thing  of  no  moment, 
and  it  was  defaced  and  torn  asunder,  as  an  idle  bauble, 
before  we  recognized  it.  To  the  ill-starred  Burns  was 
given  the  power  of  making  man's  life  more  venerable, 
but  that  of  wisely  guiding  his  own  life  was  not  given. 
Destiny — for  so  in  our  ignorance  we  must  speak— 
his  faults,  the  faults  of  others,  proved  too  hard  for 


AYR. 


53 


him,  and  that  spirit  which  might  have  soared,  could  it 
but  have  walked,  soon  sank  to  the  dust,  its  glorious 
faculties  trodden  under  foot  in  the  blossom,  and  died, 
we  may  almost  say,  without  ever  having  lived.  .  .  . 

"Far  more  interesting  than  any  of  his  written 
works,  as  it  appears  to  us,  are  his  acted  ones — the  life 
he  willed  and  was  fated  to  lead  among  his  fellow-men. 
These  poems  are  but  like  little  rhymed  fragments 
scattered  here  and  there  in  the  grand  unrhymed 
romance  of  his  earthly  existence,  and  it  is  only  when 
intercolated  in  this  at  their  proper  places  that  they 
attain  their  full  measure  of  significance.  .  .  .  With 
our  readers  in  general,  with  men  of  right  feeling  any- 
where, we  are  not  required  to  plead  for  Burns.  In 
pitying  admiration  he  lies  enshrined  in  all  our  hearts, 
in  a  far  nobler  mausoleum  than  that  one  of  marble ; 
neither  will  his  works,  even  as  they  are,  pass  away 
from  the  memory  of  man." 1 

1  "  Essay  on  Burns,"  Thomas  Carlyle. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


LANARKSHIRE. 

Lanarkshire,  tucked  securely  away  in  the  middle 
of  southern  Scotland,  was  less  exposed  to  the  desolat- 
ing warfare  of  the  Borders  than  its  neighboring 
counties.  The  Romans  possessed  it  and  intersected 
it  with  roads,  and  after  them  it  endured  the  trials 
common  to  other  parts  of  the  Kingdom  of  the  Strath- 
clyde  Britons,  passing  eventually  under  the  rule  of 
the  Scottish  monarchs. 

According  to  Wyntoun  (Blind  Harry's  account  is 
different)  one  of  Wallace's  early  exploits  took  place 
in  the  streets  of  Lanark.  Wallace  had  married 
Marian  Bradfute,  the  heiress  of  Lamington,  and  on 
one  occasion,  about  the  year  1297 — the  same  in  which 
he  was  knighted — as  he  was  walking  through  the 
town  an  English  soldier  made  some  insulting  remarks 
about  his  wife.  Wallace  drew  his  sword,  wounded 
the  man  and  then,  with  the  whole  pack  at  his  heels, 
ran  for  his  life.  Marian  Bradfute  opened  the  door  of 
his  own  house  just  long  enough  for  him  to  slip  in  and 
out  again  by  the  back,  and  so  off  to  the  Cartland 
Crags.  For  this  act  she  was  seized  by  the  English 
and  put  to  death.    When  news  of  this  reached  Wal- 

54 


Auld  Alloway  Kirk 


LANARKSHIRE. 


55 


lace  in  his  hiding-place,  it  decided  his  future ;  thence- 
forth his  life  would  be  devoted  to  the  task  of  driving 
out  the  oppressors,  and  he  began  by  gathering  a  small 
band  about  him,  descending  upon  Lanark  in  the 
night,  burning  the  quarters  of  the  English  and  kill- 
ing a  number  of  the  garrison,  with  their  leader, 
William  de  Hazelrig,  made  Sheriff  of  Ayr  and  Earl 
of  Clydesdale  by  Edward  I. 

Eight  miles  from  Lanark,  up  the  Douglas  Water, 
is  the  village  of  Douglas,  near  which,  on  the  banks 
of  the  stream,  is  the  old  Church  of  St.  Bride  and  the 
site  of  Douglas  Castle,  the  ancient  home  of  that 
illustrious  family  of  whose  elder  branch  a  sketch  has 
already  been  given.  Douglas  Castle  was  the  home 
of  the  good  Sir  James,  the  virtual  founder  of  the 
family  greatness.  His  father,  Sir  William  "le 
Hardi,"  like  many  Scottish  nobles  of  that  time,  pos- 
sessed estates  in  England  and  owed  dual  fealty — to 
Scotland  and  England.  He  went  out  with  Wal- 
lace, but  capitulated  to  King  Edward  in  1297  at 
Irvine.  He  was  sent  prisoner  to  England  and  died 
in  the  Tower  of  London  in  the  following  year.  His 
lands  were  given  to  Sir  Robert  Clifford,  an  English- 
man.   His  son  James,  who  was  then 

"  ane  litell  knaf 
That  was  than  bot  ane  litell  page," 

went  for  safety  to  Paris.  Three  years  later  he  re- 
turned and  became  a  page  in  the  household  of  Lam- 


56       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


berton,  the  patriotic  Bishop  of  St.  Andrews.  Hear- 
ing of  Bruce's  stabbing  Comyn,  he  determined  to 
join  him.  and  the  place  at  Erickstane,  near  the  source 
of  the  Annan,  where  Douglas  joined  Bruce,  then  on 
his  way  from  Dumfries  to  Scone,  is  still  pointed  out. 

From  that  moment  he  was  Bruce's  true  and  con- 
stant companion  till  death  and  after.  His  personal 
appearance  is  fully  described  by  Barbour,  who  no 
doubt  had  seen  him.  His  complexion  was  dark,  and, 
like  the  "  good  Hector  of  Troy,"  he  had  raven  black 
hair ;  hence  the  *  sobriquet  of  "  the  Black  Douglas  " 
which  descended  to  his  family.  He  was  of  command- 
ing stature,  large  limbed  and  broad  shouldered, 
courteous  in  manner,  but  retiring  in  speech.  Again, 
like  Hector  of  Troy,  he  had  a  lisp  which  became  him 
well — 

w  And  in  spek  ulispyt  he  sum  deill, 
But  that  sat  him  rycht  wondre  weill." 

He  was  terrible  in  battle,  but  at  all  times  hated  every- 
thing treacherous  or  dishonorable  or  false.    In  fact, 

"  He  was  a  very  perfect  gentle  knight." 

Douglas  Castle  was  the  scene  of  many  of  his  exploits 
chronicled  by  Barbour  and  Wyntoun. 

While  Bruce  lay  at  Glentrool  in  the  spring  of 
1307,  Douglas  and  two  companions  went  off  to  re- 
connoitre his  old  property.  He  met  a  former  servant 
of  his  father's,  Thomas  Dickson,  who,  rejoiced  to  see 


LANARKSHIRE. 


57 


him,  gathered  a  few  retainers.  Palm  Sunday  (Mareh 
1 9)  was  approaching.  The  English  garrison  were  to 
attend  service  in  St.  Bride's  and  to  hold  high  festival 
afterwards  in  the  Castle.  Disguised  as  countrymen, 
Douglas  himself  carrying  a  flail,  the  Scotsmen  at- 
tended this  service,  and  suddenly,  with  a  shout  of  u  A 
Douglas !  a  Douglas !"  they  threw  off  their  "  auld 
and  bare  man  tills"  and  attacked  the  unsuspecting 
soldiers,  all  of  whom  were  killed  or  taken  prisoner. 
Dickson  was  killed  in  the  scuffle,  which  enraged 
Douglas  immensely.  Taking  his  prisoners  with  him, 
he  went  to  the  Castle,  where  nobody  was  left  but  a 
cook  and  a  porter,  and  after  enjoying  the  feast  pre- 
pared for  the  garrison,  he  stove  in  the  wine  casks, 
killed  the  prisoners,  and  heaping  up  their  bodies  with 
the  provisions,  set  fire  to  the  mass  and  burned  down 
the  Castle.  This  episode  has  ever  since  been  known 
as  the  "  Douglas  Larder." 

"  For  raele  and  malt  and  blod  and  wyn 
Ran  all  together  in  a  inellyn  [mixture] ; 
For  sic  thingis  tha  mellit  [mixed]  wer 
[Men]  callit  it  the  Douglas  Lardener." 

Douglas  retired  to  Galloway ;  he  loved  better  to  hear 
the  lark  sing  than  the  mouse  squeak,  he  said. 

Clifford  at  once  rebuilt  the  Castle  and  put  in  one 
Thirl  wall  to  be  Governor.  Douglas  vowed  to  be  re- 
venged. With  a  small  following,  he  returned  to 
Douglasdale  and  perpetrated  a  stratagem  as  old  as 
warfare. 


58       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Setting  an  ambush  at  a  place  called  Sandy  lands,  he 
disguised  some  of  his  men  as  herdsmen,  who  drove  a 
herd  of  cattle  along  the  road  in  view  of  the  Castle. 
Thirlwall  determined  to  capture  the  cattle  and  issued 
out  with  his  garrison  to  seize  them.  When  suffi- 
ciently far  from  the  Castle,  the  party  was  surrounded 
by  the  ambushed  enemy,  and  Thirlwall  and  most  of 
.,  his  men  were  killed. 

Douglas  then  gave  out  that  he  had  taken  a  vow  to 
be  revenged  on  any  Englishman  who  would  dare  to 
hold  his  father's  Castle.  The  vow  was  entirely  in 
accordance  with  the  chivalry  of  the  time,  and  Doug- 
las Castle  was  called  the  "  Perilous  Castle "  or  the 
"Adventurous  Castle/'  and  it  became  a  point  of 
honor  to  hold  it. 

A  certain  English  lady  promised  to  marry  an  Eng- 
lish knight,  Sir  John  Webton,1  if  he  would  hold  the 
Castle  Perilous  for  a  year  and  a  day.  To  try  this,  he 
obtained  King  Edward's  sanction.  When  Bruce, 
after  the  battle  of  Loudon,  marched  to  the  North, 
Douglas  was  left  in  the  South  to  reduce  the  Border 
Counties,  and  he  determined  to  begin  with  his  own 
Castle.  Again  he  used  nearly  the  same  stratagem  as 
twice  before. 

Learning  that  the  garrison  was  short  of  provisions, 
he  disguised  himself  and  his  followers  as  country 
farmers,  each  of  whom  carried  on  his  horse  a  great 

1  So  Barbour  calls  him.    The  modern  historian,  Tytler,  thinks  the 
name  should  read  Wanton,  and  Sir  Walter  Scott  calls  him  Walton. 


LANARKSHIRE. 


59 


sack  of  grain  or  hay.  The  garrison  seeing  this  caval- 
cade of  traders,  apparently  on  the  way  to  market,  de- 
termined to  seize  what  they  so  much  required,  and, 
led  by  Webton,  rode  out  in  pursuit.  The  disguised 
farmers  threw  away  their  loads  and  surrounded  the 
Englishmen.  The  party  was  vanquished,  and  the 
brave  English  leader  fell  in  the  skirmish.  In  his 
pocket  was  found  the  letter  from  his  lady  love.  The 
knightly  heart  of  Douglas  was  touched.  This  time 
there  was  no  after-slaughter.  The  English  survivors 
were  honorably  treated  and  dismissed  in  safety  to 
Carlisle.1 

When  the  house  of  the  "  Black  Douglas  "  was  ex- 
tinguished in  the  reign  of  James  II.  the  Castle  and 
the  lands  in  Douglasdale  were  given  to  the  fourth 
Earl  of  Angus,  the  head  of  the  "Red  Douglases" — a 
junior  branch  of  the  family  descended  from  a  younger 
son  of  the  first  Earl  of  Douglas,  as  a  reward  for 
siding  with  the  King  against  the  head  of  their  family. 

The  fifth  Earl,  Archibald,  is  known  in  history  as 
Bell-the-Cat.  When  James  III.  was  King,  he  gov- 
erned the  country  through  an  insolent  and  unworthy 
favorite,  one  Robert  Cochrane,  who  had  been  a  Mason, 
but  on  whom  the  King  conferred  the  Earldom  of 
Mar. 

The  country  was  utterly  misgoverned,  the  coin 
debased  and  the  ancient  nobility  slighted.    An  Eng- 

1  This  story  forms  the  subject  of  Scott's  latest  novel,  Castle  Dan- 
gerous, written  the  year  before  he  died. 


60       SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 

lish  invasion  by  Edward  IV.  was  imminent,  and  the 
Scottish  army  was  nearly  in  mutiny.  The  army  lay 
at  Lauder,  and  at  a  secret  meeting  of  some  powerful 
barons  the  situation  was  discussed.  All  agreed  that 
Cochrane  must  be  removed.  A  shrewd  old  noble, 
Lord  Gray,  dryly  remarked  that  when  the  mice  were 
annoyed  by  the  interruptions  and  persecutions  of  the 
cat,  it  was  agreed  in  council  to  hang  a  bell  to  the 
cat's  neck,  so  that  the  mice  should  know  when  the 
cat  was  coming;  but  no  mouse  was  brave  enough  to 
undertake  the  task. 

"  Heed  not,"  said  Lord  Angus ;  "  I  will  bell  the 
cat."  Presently  Cochrane  entered  the  church  where 
the  Lords  were  assembled.  Angus  snatched  his  gold 
chain,  saying  a  halter  would  become  him  better. 
The  upstart  Earl  was  hastily  tried,  and  in  spite  of 
James's  intercession,  was  condemned  to  be  hanged  for 
having  misled  the  King  and  misgoverned  the  country. 
He  was  a  bold  man  and  he  asked  but  one  favor; 
being  an  Earl,  might  he  be  hanged  with  a  silken 
cord?  This  was  refused,  and  he  was  hanged  over 
the  Bridge  of  Lauder  with  a  hair  tether,  as  being 
even  more  ignominious  than  a  hempen  rope.  Ever 
after  Angus  was  known  as  Archibald  Bell-the-Cat. 

In  his  old  age  he  accompanied  James  IV.  on  the 
expedition  which  ended  at  Flodden.  Disgusted  with 
the  criminal  folly  of  his  sovereign's  conduct,  he 
remonstrated  with  him  on  the  eve  of  the  battle,  and 
implored  him  either  to  act  promptly,  before  the  Eng- 


LANARKSHIRE. 


61 


lish  could  bring  up  all  their  army,  or  to  delay  the 
battle,  when  the  enemy  must  disperse  to  find  food. 
King  James  met  his  patriotic  advice  with  the  cruel 
taunt — if  he  were  afraid,  he  had  better  go  home.  At 
this  insult  the  aged  Earl  burst  into  tears,  and  with 
a  few  words  of  further  remonstrance,  took  leave  of 
his  sovereign ;  but  he  left  his  two  sons  with  the 
army.  They  both  fell  in  the  battle.  Angus  himself 
retired  to  the  Monastery  of  Whithorn,  and  died  there 
six  months  later. 

One  of  his  sons  was  Gavin  Douglas,  Bishop  of 
Dunkeld,  whose  father  Scott  makes  proudly  boast : 

u  Thanks  to  St.  Bothan,  son  of  mine, 
Save  Gawain,  ne'er  could  pen  a  line." 

— "  Marmion,"  vi.,  15. 

This  churchman,  though  "  a  noble  lord  of  Douglas 
blood"— 

"  Yet  show'd  his  meek  and  thoughtful  eye, 
But  little  pride  of  prelacy ; 
More  pleased  that  in  a  barbarous  age 
He  gave  rude  Scotland  Virgil's  page." 

—Ibid.,  vi.,  11. 

He  was  no  mean  poet.  He  translated  the  "iEneid" 
into  Scots  verse,  and  wrote  other  poems,  of  which 
there  still  survive,  (i  The  Palice  of  Honour,"  an  alle- 
gory of  the  virtuous  life ;  "  King  Hart,"  an  allegory 
of  the  struggles  of  the  human  heart  with  the  tempta- 
tions of  the  flesh ;  and  a  shorter  poem  on  the  "  Con- 


62       SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


science."  Poems  such  as  these  show  far  better  the 
inner  history  of  the  life  of  the  time  than  all  the 
chronicles,  which  merely  mention  incident,  and  chiefly 
violent  incident. 

Bell-the-Cat  was  succeeded  by  his  grandson  Archi- 
bald, the  sixth  Earl,  who  married  Margaret  Tudor, 
the  widow  of  James  IV.,  eleven  months  after  Flod- 
den.  Their  daughter,  Lady  Margaret  Douglas,  mar- 
ried the  Earl  of  Lennox,  and  became  the  mother  of 
Darnley. 

During  the  minority  of  his  stepson,  James  V., 
Lord  Angus  ruled  the  young  King  so  despotically  that, 
when  sixteen  years  old,  the  latter  rebelled  and  escaped 
from  Falkland  in  disguise  and  raised  the  country 
against  the  Douglases.  The  King  failed,  however, 
to  take  Douglas  Castle  and  Tantallon,  and  was  de- 
feated by  Angus  at  Coldingham.  In  spite  of  these 
successes  the  Earl  was  "  forfeitted,"  and  was  obliged 
to  fly  to  England,  where  he  was  well  received  by  his 
brother-in-law,  King  Henry  VIII.  He  was  not 
restored  until  after  the  death  of  James  V.,  when  he 
returned  to  Scotland.  His  insolences  to  the*Queen 
Regent  have  already  been  mentioned.1 

James  V.  vowed  after  Angus'  rebellion  that  no 
Douglas  should  ever  find  a  resting-place  in  Scotland 
while  he  lived,  and  among  other  banished  members 
was  the  EarPs  uncle,  Archibald  Douglas  of  Kils- 
pindie,  who  had  been  one  of  James'  greatest  friends 
1  See  p.  215,  Vol.  t 


LANARKSHIRE. 


63 


in  his  boyhood,  and  whom  he  had  nicknamed  Gray 
steel. 

Wearied  with  exile  Douglas  came  back  to  Scot- 
land, put  himself  in  the  King's  way  when  he  was- 
returning  from  hunting  near  Stirling,  and  prayed  for 
pardon.  James  was  implacable,  and  passed  on  with- 
out notice.  Kilspindie  ran  alongside  the  King's 
horse,  but  in  vain.  Dropping  at  last  with  fatigue, 
he  begged  for  a  cup  of  water ;  but  this  was  refused 
by  the  obsequious  courtiers.  Hearing  of  it,  the  King 
sharply  rebuked  their  discourtesy,  and  said  that  but 
for  his  oath  against  the  Douglases  he  would  have 
taken  him  into  favor. 

Kilspindie  was  ordered  to  retire  to  France.  Even 
the  grim  Henry  VIII.  blamed  his  nephew  for  this 
unrelenting  spirit,  reminding  him  of  the  old  adage, 
"The  King's  face  should  give  grace."  Gray  steel's 
misfortunes  and  prowess  are  idealized  in  the  fifth 
canto  of  the  "  Lady  of  the  Lake." 

The  next  prominent  Earl  of  Angus  was  the  eighth 
Earl,  known  as  the  "Guid  Archibald."  He  was  a 
friend  of  the  Eeformers,  and  of  him  it  was  written 
by  a  clerical  historian  that  he  was  "more  religious 
nor  anie  of  his  predecessors;  nay,  nor  anie  of  all  the 
erles  of  the  countrie,  muche  beloved  of  the  godlie." 
He  died  in  1588. 

With  the  Union  the  power  of  the  Crown  entirely 
overtopped  that  of  the  nobility,  and  no  member  of 
this  powerful  house  ever  again  attained  great  promi- 


64       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

oence.  The  Good  Earl  having  no  sons  was  succeeded 
by  a  cousin,  and  the  title  went  on  in  the  Douglas  line 
until  the  eleventh  Earl  of  Angus,  a  staunch  loyalist, 
was  created  Marquis  of  Douglas  by  Charles  I.  The 
thirteenth  Earl  and  third  Marquis  was  made  Duke 
of  Douglas  by  Queen  Anne.  On  his  death  without 
children  in  1761  the  Dukedom  became  extinct,  but 
the  title  of  Marquis  of  Douglas  and  Earl  of  Angus 
went  to  the  nearest  heir  male,  the  Duke  of  Hamilton, 
a  descendant  of  the  first  Marquis  of  Douglas,  who 
thus  became  head  of  the  male  line  of  this  ancient  and 
illustrious  family. 

The  estates  however  did  not  go  with  the  title,  and 
their  disposal  formed  the  subject  of  one  of  the  most 
notable  law-suits  that  ever  happened  in  Scotland,  still 
known  as  "  the  Douglas  Cause." 

The  Duke  of  Douglas  had  a  sister,  Lady  Jane  Doug- 
las, who  at  the  age  of  forty-eight  married  Sir  John 
Stewart  of  Grandtully.  After  the  marriage  they  went 
abroad  and  lived  in  retirement.  When  Lady  Jane  was 
in  her  fifty -first  year  it  was  announced  that  she  had,  in 
Paris,  given  birth  to  twin  sons.  Five  years  later  she 
and  her  husband  returned  to  England,  and  shortly 
afterwards  the  younger  twin  and  father  and  mother 
died.  On  the  Duke's  death  in  1761  the  surviving 
son  was  served  heir  to  the  deceased  peer.  The  suc- 
cession was  at  once  disputed  by  the  guardians  of  the 
Duke  of  Hamilton  then,  like  young  Stewart,  a  minor. 
It  was  contended  that  the  story  of  the  birth  of  the 


LANARKSHIRE. 


65 


twins  was  false,  and  that  they  were  really  the  children 
of  a  French  peasant  obtained  for  fraudulent  purposes. 
It  took  six  years  to  fight  the  case  in  the  Scottish  law 
courts,  and  the  whole  country,  indeed  all  Europe,  took 
sides  in  the  great  "Douglas  Cause." 

There  was  a  strange  fascination  in  the  case.  It 
concerned  the  honor  of  one  of  the  greatest  families  of 
Europe.  The  interest  of  the  public  was  carried  to 
places  and  people  entirely  strange  and  new :  to  the 
forms  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  to  French  hostel- 
ries,  to  German  watering-places,  to  foreign  diligences, 
to  the  homes  of  French  peasants  and  Parisian  trades- 
men, to  villainy  and  mystery  more  mysterious  as  of  a 
form  unfamiliar.  The  cause  was  eagerly  discussed  in 
every  Castle  and  every  cottage  of  Great  Britain.  The 
memoirs  of  the  period  teem  with  allusions  to  it.  At 
last  it  came  before  the  fifteen  Judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Scotland.  Seven  J udges  pronounced  on  the 
one  side  and  seven  on  the  other ;  the  casting  vote  had 
to  be  given  by  the  Lord  President,  Dundas  of  Ar mis- 
ton,  and  by  him  it  was  given  against  the  Stewart. 
This  was  appealed  to  the  final  court,  the  House  of 
Lords.  Two  years  later  the  Lords  reversed  the  Scot- 
tish decision  and  young  Stewrart  became  proprietor  of 
the  Douglas  estates.  The  pronouncement  was  received 
with  immense  popular  enthusiasm.  Ships  in  the 
harbors  were  decked  with  bunting;  all  the  great 
towns  were  illuminated;  the  Lord  President's  win- 
dows in  Edinburgh  were  smashed  by  the  mob ;  the 
Vol.  II.— 5 


66       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Duke  of  Hamilton's  lodging  in  Holyrood  was  only 
saved  by  a  guard  of  soldiers. 

Yet  in  Douglasdale  there  was  doubt,  and  supersti- 
tion lent  its  aid  to  the  doubt.  It  is  said  that  an 
ancient  rookery  was  deserted  by  the  rooks  on  the  day 
the  Duke  died.  The  rooks  returned  when  the  Scot- 
tish courts  decided  against  the  claimant,  and  again 
they  left  on  his  restoration  by  the  House  of  Lords. 

The  new  heir  was  made  a  peer  as  Baron  Douglas 
and  had  eight  sons,  but  all  died  childless  and  again 
the  superstitious  drew  their  inferences.  Of  his  three 
daughters,  however,  the  eldest  married  Lord  Mon- 
tague, and  to  her  was  born  a  daughter,  who  married 
the  eleventh  Earl  of  Home,  and  her  son,  the  twelfth 
Earl,  is  now  the  possessor  of  the  property.  Thus  it 
comes  about  that  the  Duke  of  Hamilton  is  head  of 
the  Douglases,  bift  the  Earl  of  Home  is  Lord  of 
Douglasdale. 

There  are  however  two  branches  of  the  Douglas 
family  which  still  hold  historic  peerages — the  Mar- 
quis of  Queensberry,  who  descends  from  a  natural 
son  of  the  second  Earl  of  Douglas  killed  at  Otter- 
burn,  and  the  Earl  of  Morton,  who  traces  his  an- 
cestry to  Douglas  of  Lochleven,  the  jailor  of  Queen 
Mary. 

A  word  may  be  said  of  the  tragic  end  of  another 
scion  of  the  great  house  of  Douglas,  Lord  Mording- 
ton.  The  first  Lord  Mordington  was  a  younger  son 
of  the  eleventh  Earl  of  Angus,  elevated  to  the  peerage 


LANARKSHIRE. 


67 


by  Charles  L  His  descendant  in  the  fifth  generation 
must  have  sunk  very  low.  We  find  him  at  one  time 
a  sailor,  and  he  appears  to  have  run  away  to  sea  when 
a  mere  boy.  We  meet  him  again  in  1745  as  a  barber, 
called  Charles  Douglas,  who  enlisted  with  Prince 
Charlie,  was  taken  prisoner  and  tried  for  his  life  at 
Carlisle.  He  claimed  to  be  Lord  Mordington  and 
demanded  to  be  tried  by  his  peers.  In  spite  of  his 
wretched  condition,  he  substantiated  his  privilege  and 
was  removed  from  the  assize.  Yet  he  was  not  tried 
by  the  House  of  Peers ;  he  was  therefore  probably 
pardoned  or  allowed  to  escape,  for  nothing  more  is 
ever  heard  of  him,  and  there  has  been  no  claimant  for 
the  Mordington  peerage. 

The  old  Castle  of  the  Douglases  was  many  times 
burned,  battered  and  restored  before  its  final  destruc- 
tion by  fire  in  1755,  when  the  tower  alone  escaped; 
ancient  looking  as  that  is,  it  dates  only  from  the  seven- 
teenth century. 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  feeble  and  broken  in  health,  vis- 
ited the  place  near  the  close  of  his  life  in  order  to 
describe  it  in  Castle  Dangerous.  As  he  stood  gazing 
and  thinking — thinking — his  eyes  suddenly  filled  with 
tears,  and  he  broke  forth  into  the  lament  of  the  dying 
Douglas  at  Otterburn : 

"My  wound  is  deep,  I  fain  would  sleep; 
Take  thou  the  vanguard  of  the  three, 
And  hide  me  by  the  bracken  bush 
That  grows  on  yonder  lilye  lea. 


68       SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


"  O,  bury  me  by  the  bracken  bush, 
Beneath  the  blooming  brier, 
And  never  let  living  mortal  ken 
That  e'er  a  kindly  Scot  lies  here." 

It  was  his  last  journey  of  the  kind,  the  conclusion  to 
all  those  joyous  trips  he  had  been  wont  to  make  for 
the  purpose  of  collecting  antiquarian  material  for  his 
work. 

Hard  by  is  the  modern  seat,  begun  from  plans  by 
Adam  in  1775  for  the  Duke  of  Douglas,  and  never 
completed.  Here  is  preserved  a  highly-treasured  relic, 
the  good  Sir  James's  sword,  which  is  said  to  have 
been  given  to  him  by  Bruce.  The  Highlanders  took 
it  away  when  the  Prince  spent  a  night  (December 
23,  1745)  in  the  Castle.  It  was  restored  after 
Culloden. 

All  that  remains  of  the  near-by  Church  of  St. 
Bride,  where  Sir  James  executed  his  coup-de-main  on 
Palm  Sunday,  are  the  choir  or  chancel  and  the  ruined 
south  aisle.  It  possesses  great  interest,  however,  as 
the  hereditary  burial-place  of  the  Douglases,  whose 
tombs  line  the  existing  walls  and  fill  the  burial-vaults 
below.  One  on  the  north  wall  of  the  aisle  is  supposed 
to  contain  the  ashes  of  the  good  Sir  James,  that  "  brave 
hammerer  of  the  English."  On  top,  beneath  an  ele- 
gantly-sculptured arch,  lies  a  dark-colored  stone  effigy 
of  the  knight,  clad  in  armor  and  with  legs  crossed, 
while  on  the  shield  under  the  canopy  is  carved  the 
heart,  the  addition  to  his  armorial  bearings  granted  in 


LANAKKSHIRE. 


69 


consequence  of  his  mission  with  the  heart  of  Bruce. 
The  monument  was  put  up  by  his  son,  Sir  Archibald 
the  Grim,  and  the  small  leaden  case  in  which  Sir 
James's  heart  was  said  to  be  enclosed  is  preserved,  with 
another  similar  case,  in  the  chancel. 

Ten  or  twelve  miles  to  the  west,  and  on  the  banks  of 
the  Clyde,  is  the  ruined  keep  tower  of  Leamington  or 
Lamington,  the  home  of  Marian  Bradfute,  Wallace's 
unfortunate  wife.  Lord  Lamington,  whose  modern 
mansion  is  close  by,  is  the  representative  of  the  Baillies 
of  Lamington,  said  to  be  descended  from  the  only 
daughter  of  Marian  Bradfute  and  Wallace.1  There  is 
a  fine  Norman  doorway  built  into  the  walls  of  the 
Parish  Kirk  in  the  village,  the  remnant  of  a  twelfth 
century  edifice  that  formerly  stood  on  the  site. 

In  the  neighboring  town  of  Biggar  is  the  restored 
and  modernized  Collegiate  Church  of  St.  Nicholas,  in 
whose  kirkyard  are  the  graves  of  several  generations 
of  Gladstones.  "  John  Gladstones,  maltman  and  bur- 
gess in  Biggar,"  was  the  great  grandfather  of  William 
Ewart  Gladstone.  His  son  left  Lanarkshire  and 
settled  in  Leith.  The  church,  founded  by  Malcolm, 
Lord  Fleming,  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  Scotland  in 
1545,  was  to  be  provided  with  canons,  singing  boys 
and  nuns,  but  it  was  barely  completed  when  the 
Reformation  came  to  scatter  the  founder's  plans  to  the 
winds. 

1  Baillie  of  Jerviswoode,  the  Covenanting  leader,  was  a  cadetof  this 
family. 


70       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

At  the  seat  of  the  Lockharts,  which  stands  some 
miles  to  the  northwest  of  Lanark,  is  preserved  the 
"  Lee  Penny."  This  famous  relic  is  a  dark-red  trans- 
parent stone,  set  in  a  silver  groat  of  the  fourteenth 
century  (and  for  that  reason  it  is  called  a  "  penny  y')9 
to  which  is  attached  a  small  silver  chain.  It  is  kept 
in  a  golden  casket,  presented  by  the  Empress  Maria 
Theresa  to  Count  Lockhart.  Among  those  who  accom- 
panied Sir  James  Douglas  on  his  mission  with  the  heart 
of  Bruce  was  Simon  Locard  of  Lee.  When  Sir  James 
fell  on  a  Spanish  battle-field,  it  was  he  who  brought 
the  knight's  body,  and  the  heart  back  to  Scotland,  for 
which  service  his  name  was  changed  to  Lockheart  and 
the  device  of  a  heart  and  a  lock  added  to  his  arms.  In 
the  course  of  the  campaign  he  had  captured  a  Saracen 
Prince,  for  whose  ransom  he  demanded  a  certain  stone, 
a  talisman  known  to  be  in  the  possession  of  the  family, 
and  which  was  counted  infallible  in  certain  cases  of 
sickness.  After  much  negotiation  this  precious  object 
was  at  length  given  up,  and  Lockhart  brought  it  back 
to  Scotland,  Avhere  it  has  ever  since  remained  with  his 
descendants.  The  belief  in  its  healing  powers  spread 
and  endured  to  the  most  extraordinary  degree.  People 
traveled  up  from  England  and  from  the  outlying  parts 
of  Scotland  to  drink  the  water  in  which  the  stone 
had  been  thrice  dipped  and  once  drawn  around. 
"  Three  dips  and  a  sweil "  is  the  receipt.  During  the 
plague  in  Charles  I.'s  time  the  Corporation  of  New- 
castle borrowed  it,  leaving  for  security  the  sum  of 


LANARKSHIRE. 


71 


six  thousand  pounds,  and  they  are  said  to  have  been 
so  impressed  with  its  efficacy  that  they  were  ready  to 
buy  it  for  that  sum,  but  the  owner  declined  to  sell. 
So  lately  as  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  is 
recorded  that  a  gentleman  came  all  the  way  from 
Yorkshire  to  get  a  quantity  of  the  medicinal  water  to 
take  home  with  him.  But  no  doubt  much  of  the  "  Lee 
Penny's "  fame  comes  from  the  fact  that  Sir  Walter 
Scott  used  its  history  whereon  to  found  his  fascinating 
tale  of  The  Talisman.  Another  association  with  Scott 
in  this  immediate  neighborhood  is  the  ruined  Castle  of 
Craignethan,  which  served  him  for  the  model  of  Til- 
lietudlem,  in  Old  Mortality.  Its  ancient  keep  and  its 
later  towers  and  walls  overlook  the  Clyde  from  a 
steep  promontory,  a  few  miles  below  Lanark.  The 
Castle,  or  at  all  events  the  later  parts,  are  thought  to 
be  the  work  of  Sir  James  Hamilton  of  Fynnart,  "The 
Bastard  of  Arran,"  who  lived  in  the  reign  of  James 
V.  and  who  was  beheaded  in  1540.  It  is  now  the 
property  of  the  Earl  of  Home.  The  great  pile  of 
Bothwell  Castle,  as  a  Douglas  inheritance,  also  belongs 
to  the  Earl  of  Home.  It  stands  on  a  steep  cliff  over- 
looking the  Clyde,  some  miles  above  Glasgow.  Both- 
well  Castle  is  the  finest  example  of  a  thirteenth  cen- 
tury Castle  in  Scotland;  the  finest  perhaps  of  any 
of  the  ruined  Castles  of  whatever  period  in  this 
country. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  Bothwell  belonged  to  the 
family  of  Sir  Andrew  Murray,  Wallace's  stout  lieu- 


72       SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  KOM ANTIC. 

tenant.  After  the  Murrays,  the  Douglases  held  it  for 
about  a  hundred  years,  during  which  period  its  simple 
keep  was  enlarged,  according  to  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  into  a  splendid  fortified  Castle,  built  around  a 
courtyard,  and  strongly  resembling  the  French  Castles 
of  that  day.  In  1488  Patrick  Hepburn,  Lord  Hales, 
was  created  Earl  of  Both  well  and  given  the  estate, 
which  however  he  chose  to  exchange,  a  few  years 
later,  for  Hermitage  Castle  and  Liddesdale,  held  by 
the  Earl  of  Angus,  the  Douglases  thereby  regaining 
possession  of  Bothwell,  which  has  ever  since  remained 
in  the  family,  and  has  thus  descended  to  the  present 
Lord  Home.  It  was  much  fought  over  during  the 
War  of  Independence,  being  in  common  with  many 
other  Scottish  strongholds,  repeatedly  lost  by  the 
English  and  won  back  again ;  but  none  of  these  sieges 
have  any  points  of  especial  historical  interest.  Ear 
more  epoch-making  were  the  fights  that  took  place  at 
Drumclog,  and  at  Bothwell  Bridge  a  little  higher  up 
the  Clyde,  on  June  1  and  June  22, 1679. 

After  the  murder  of  Archbishop  Sharp,  the  Cove- 
nanters seem  to  have  been  greatly  inspirited,  the 
twelve  men  engaged  in  it  assuring  themselves,  and 
every  one  else,  of  the  very  especial  manner  in  which 
the  Lord  had  intimated  to  them  his  approval  of  the 
deed.  Several  weeks  later  a  conventicle  was  arranged 
to  meet  in  the  hilly  country  near  the  southwestern 
border  of  Lanarkshire.  Mr.  Douglas,  a  popular 
preacher,  was  to  hold  it,  and  a  large  number  of 


LANARKSHIRE. 


73 


people  attended,  the  greater  part  of  them,  as  had  then 
become  customary,  armed.  Especially  stringent  or- 
ders had  lately  been  issued  by  the  Government  to 
break  up  Conventicles,  and  arrest  all  persons  found 
attending  them  or  bearing  arms.  Claverhouse  there- 
fore, when  it  was  rumored  that  there  was  to  be  a 
meeting  on  Sabbath,  1st  of  June,  was  sent  from  Glas- 
gow with  three  troops  of  dragoons  to  suppress  it. 
After  breakfasting  with  his  officers  at  "  Scribbie 
Young's"  Inn,  in  Strathaven,  he  proceeded  towards 
Drumclog,  a  moor  six  miles  to  the  southwest.  The 
Covenanters,  forewarned  by  their  watchers,  were 
drawn  up  on  the  far  side  of  a  concealed  bog,  below 
the  hill.  The  troops  being  ordered  to  charge,  were 
caught  in  this  bog,  where  they  floundered  helplessly 
at  the  mercy  of  the  Covenanters,  and  were  soon 
utterly  routed,  Claverhouse  himself  barely  escaping 
with  his  life. 

Some  of  the  prisoners  who  had  surrendered  on  the 
promise  of  quarter  were  killed  ;  but  five  were  let  go, 
a  circumstance  that  seems  ever  after  to  have  rankled 
in  the  memory  of  the  Covenanting  leader,  Mr.  Ham- 
ilton. It  is  said  that  Claverhouse,  on  his  way  back 
to  Glasgow,  met  some  troops  coming  to  his  relief,  but 
that  he  told  the  officer  in  charge  that  he  had  attended 
one  Whig  meeting  that  day,  and  did  not  care  enough 
for  the  lecture  to  return  for  the  afternoon  sermon. 
The  Whigs,  after  a  feeble  and  unsuccessful  attempt 
on  Glasgow,  received  such  large  reinforcements  that  a 


74       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

week  later,  finding  themselves  five  thousand  strong, 
they  determined  to  take  the  offensive.  Unfortu- 
nately however  among  the  late  arrivals  were  num- 
bered some  representatives  of  the  moderate  party — 
those  who  had  accepted  the  Indulgence  and  taken  the 
Test.  These  and  the  more  furious  spirits  who  wanted 
to  overthrow  everything,  and  to  whom  the  King  was 
the  "Bloody  Tyrant,"  now  fell  foul  of  one  another, 
and  the  fortnight  that  followed  was  consumed  in 
wrangles,  quarrels,  declarations  and  counter  declara- 
tions among  themselves. 

The  Duke  of  Monmouth,  with  an  army  of  trained 
soldiers,  advancing  meantime  quite  leisurely,  reached 
Both  well  Muir  on  the  21st.  There,  in  full  view  of 
the  Covenanting  host,  drawn  up  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  river,  he  proceeded  to  place  his  guns,  dig  trenches 
and  otherwise  prepare  for  battle.  And  all  the  time 
the  Ministers  continued  to  discuss,  argue  and  dispute, 
making,  it  would  appear,  absolutely  no  preparation 
for  the  coming  struggle. 

It  is  therefore  hardly  a  matter  of  surprise  that 
when  Monmouth,  having  completed  his  arrange- 
ments, advanced  to  the  attack,  there  was  hardly  any 
resistance  worthy  of  the  name.  The  narrow  bridge 
that  spans  the  Clyde  was  very  gallantly  held  by  a 
few  men  with  one  gun  until  their  ammunition  gave 
out.  They  sent  to  the  commander,  Mr.  Hamilton, 
for  more,  and  he  said  he  had  none !  The  rout  was 
complete;  four  or  five  hundred  of  the  Covenanters 


LANARKSHIRE. 


75 


were  butchered  in  the  pursuit,  and  three  hundred 
prisoners  were  taken  to  Edinburgh  and  confined  for 
five  months  in  the  Greyfriars'  Churchyard. 

The  immediate  results  of  this  check,  and  of  the 
crisis  which  had  been  reached  within  the  ranks  of  the 
Covenanters  themselves,  have  already  been  alluded  to 
in  another  chapter. 

Hamilton  is  a  prosperous  town,  not  far  from  Both- 
well,  at  the  junction  of  the  Avon  and  the  Clyde.  Its 
principal  building  is  Hamilton  Palace,  which,  though 
dating  from  1574,  was  rebuilt  in  1705  and  in  1822, 
and  is  a  sumptuous,  if  rather  dull  mansion,  in  the 
classical  style.  Prince  Charles  spent  Christmas  Day 
here  in  1745,  but  no  tradition  of  his  visit  is  pre- 
served locally. 

Near  by,  on  the  river,  are  the  ruins  of  the  older 
Cadzow  Castle,  and  in  the  policies  a  herd  of  white 
cattle,  the  ancient  British  Urus,  is  carefully  pre- 
served. 

The  palace  is  the  residence  of  the  Duke  of  Ham- 
ilton, a  scion  of  a  house  that  played  a  conspicuous 
part  in  Scottish  history.  The  Hamiltons  are  supposed 
to  have  been  originally  Norman,  and  to  have  come  to 
Scotland  from  Hambledon,  in  Lincolnshire. 

The  first  of  the  family  who  came  into  historical 
prominence  was  Sir  James  Hamilton  of  Cadzow, 
whose  desertion  of  the  Earl  of  Douglas  was  re- 
warded by  James  II.  with  the  hand  of  his  daughter, 
the  Princess  Mary.    So  nearly  did  this  marriage 


76       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

bring  the  royal  dignity  to  the  family  that  when  James 
V.  died  the  head  of  the  Hamiltons  was  heir  to  the 
throne  in  case  of  the  infant  Queen  Mary's  death. 
This  chief  was  the  Earl  of  Arran,  and  owing  to 
his  position  as  heir  presumptive,  he  was  made  .Regent 
of  Scotland  and  remained  so  for  eleven  years,  when 
he  resigned  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Queen  Dowa- 
ager,  Mary  of  Guise.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  his 
Regency  was  to  sanction  the  circulation  of  the  Bible 
in  the  vulgar  tongue — an  act  which  gave  a  great 
impetus  to  the  Reformation  in  Scotland,  though  the 
Earl  did  not  join  the  Reforming  party  until  1559, 
and  no  Bible  was  actually  printed  in  Scotland  until 
twenty  years  after  that  date.  He  was  a  gentle,  pliant 
man,  but  believed  to  have  been  thoroughly  honest  and 
faithful  to  his  trust.  He  was  courted  by  both  French 
and  English,  and  by  the  French  King  he  was  made 
Duke  of  Chatelherault,  while  Henry  VIII.  offered, 
should  the  Regent  fall  in  with  his  views,  to  give  his 
daughter,  the  Princess  (afterwards  Queen)  Elizabeth, 
in  marriage  to  his  eldest  son ;  but  this  honor  the  Earl 
declined.  Arran  strenuously  opposed  Mary's  mar- 
riage to  Darnley,  and  was  obliged  to  retire  to  France, 
where  he  remained  until  after  the  Queen's  departure 
for  England  ;  but  his  family  were  the  chief  supporters 
of  Queen  Mary  after  her  escape  from  Lochleven,  and 
on  his  return  the  Earl  headed  the  Queen's  party. 
John  Hamilton,  the  last  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews, 
was  his  natural  brother.    This  is  the  prelate  who  was 


LANARKSHIRE. 


77 


hanged  in  full  canonicals  at  Stirling  in  1571,  theoreti- 
cally for  being  privy  to  the  murder  of  Darnley,  but 
really  in  revenge  for  the  assassination  of  the  Regent 
Moray,  who  was  shot  from  the  window  of  the  Arch- 
bishop's house  in  Linlithgow  by  another  member  of 
the  Hamilton  family.1 

The  great  Regent's  eldest  son  happened  to  be  in  the 
Castle  of  St.  Andrews  when  Cardinal  Beaton  was 
murdered.  He  was  held  as  a  hostage  by  the  conspira- 
tors, and  as  he  early  became  a  Protestant  it  may  be 
supposed  that  he  there  imbibed  his  principles  from 
John  Knox.  When  Mary  of  Guise  became  Regent, 
he  went  to  France  and  became  Commandant  of  the 
famous  Scots  Guard  there.  The  Guise  Princes  were 
then  looking  out  for  some  Protestant  of  the  highest 
rank  whom  they  might  strike  down,  to  show  that  no 
Protestant,  however  exalted,  could  escape  their  power. 
Young  Hamilton,  the  heir  presumptive  to  the  Scottish 
throne  and  allied  to  the  French  royal  family,  was 
selected  as  the  victim,  but  he  received  timely  warning 
and  escaped  to  Scotland  in  1559.  The  widowed 
Mary  returned  two  years  later,  and  Hamilton  fell 
madly  in  love  with  her.  He  might  have  been  the 
successful  suitor  had  his  Protestant  fervor  not  induced 
him  to  interfere  with  Mary's  exercise  of  her  Catholic 
religion.  He  shortly  afterwards  became  hopelessly 
insane,  the  malady  it  is  believed  being  caused  or 
hastened  by  his  disappointment  in  love.  He  was 
1  See  p.  158,  Vol.  I. 


78       SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

never  married,  but  his  brother,  who  superseded  him 
on  the  declaration  of  his  insanity,  was  created  Mar- 
quis of  Hamilton.  The  latter's  grandson,  the  third 
Marquis,  though  a  staunch  Presbyterian,  was  faithful  to 
Charles  I.,  by  whom  he  was  made  Duke  of  Hamilton, 
and  in  the  King's  cause  he  lost  his  life  for  heading  the 
army  of  the  "Engagers"  in  1648.  The  first  Duke 
was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  and  he,  having  no  sons, 
by  his  daughter  Anne,  Duchess  of  Hamilton.  This 
lady  married  Lord  William  Douglas,  second  son  of 
the  first  Marquis  of  Douglas,  and  her  husband  prede- 
ceasing her,  she  resigned  her  titles  to  her  eldest  son, 
James,  fourth  Duke,  whose  tragic  death  in  a  duel  with 
the  profligate  Lord  Mohun  is  so  graphically  described 
by  Thackeray  in  Esmond.  Though  the  Duchess 
Anne  inherited  the  Dukedom,  the  male  headship  of 
the  house  of  Hamilton  passed  to  the  Earls  (now 
Dukes)  of  Abercorn,  a  family  settled  in  Ireland, 
descended  from  the  fourth  son  of  the  Regent  Arran. 
The  marriage  of  the  Duchess  brought  the  Hamilton 
title  to  the  Douglas  family,  whose  headship,  as  has 
been  already  related,  passed  to  the  seventh  Duke 
of  Hamilton  in  1761.  The  name  of  the  family  to- 
day is  Douglas-Hamilton. 

Two  or  three  miles  to  the  southwest  of  Bothwell  is 
Dechmont  Hill,  on  whose  slope  still  stands  the 
seventeenth  century  house  of  Hamilton  of  Gilbert- 
field,  whose  service  to  his  country  in  the  matter  of  a 
paraphrased  edition  of  Blind  Harry  has  already  been 


LANARKSHIRE. 


79 


referred  to.  In  his  day  the  mansion  commanded  a 
charming  and  romantic  prospect,  and  the  Vale  of 
Clyde  possessed  all  the  features  of  pastoral  beauty  that 
its  name  suggests.  Now  however  modern  industry 
has  invaded  the  valley ;  railway  trains  go  shriek- 
ing back  and  forth,  and  the  traveler  from  the  east  or 
south  approaches  Glasgow  through  a  network  of  col- 
lieries and  furnaces,  manufactories,  chimneys  and  other 
depressing  witnesses  to  Lanarkshire's  present-day 
greatness  and  prosperity. 

The  traditional  account  of  the  beginnings  of  Glas- 
gow tells  of  how  Thanay,  the  Christian  daughter  of 
the  King  of  Leudonia  (Lothian),  was  betrayed  by  her 
princely  lover,  Ewen,  a  Knight  of  the  Round  Table 
and  a  nephew  of  King  Arthur,  and  consequently — in 
accordance  with  the  severe  code  of  her  father's  house, 
thrown  from  the  top  of  a  high  cliff.  She  miraculously 
reached  the  ground  unharmed,  only  to  be  placed  by 
her  unrelenting  father  in  an  open  boat  and  set  adrift 
on  the  ocean.  The  bark,  floating  up  the  Firth,  went 
ashore  one  night  at  Collenros  (Culross),  and  there  in 
the  early  morning  of  the  following  day  was  born  the 
future  saint  and  missionary,  Kentigern.  St.  Servanus, 
who  was  then  working  among  the  heathen  of  that 
district,  took  charge  of  the  mother  and  child,  calling 
the  latter  Kentigern  (chief  of  lords)  and  Mungo  (a 
dear  one). 

On  growing  up,  Kentigern  left  Culross  and  went  to 
a  place  near  the  present  town  of  Stirling,  which  he 


80       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


reached  just  in  time  to  carry  out  the  dying  injunctions 
of  a  Christian  named  Fergus,  who  directed  him  to 
divide  his  (Fergus's)  goods  among  the  poor  and  con- 
duct his  burial  in  the  manner  he  thought  best. 
Keutigern  accordingly  placed  the  body  in  a  wagon  to 
which  two  young  bulls  were  harnessed,  and  these  he 
followed  patiently  till  he  reached  the  site  of  the  pres- 
ent city  of  Glasgow.  There  the  bulls  halted,  and 
Kentigern  buried  Fergus  in  holy  ground  that  had 
been  consecrated  by  St.  Ninian. 

Appointed  Bishop  of  Cumbria,  Kentigern  was  driven 
from  his  See  in  a  period  of  persecution,  but  was  recalled 
after  the  battle  of  Ardderyd  (Arthuret,  near  Carlisle) 
in  573,  which  placed  the  Christian  Rhydderch  on  the 
throne.1  Tradition  says  that  Merlin,  himself  a  Prince 
of  one  of  the  Druid  tribes,  was  present  at  this  battle, 
another  result  of  which  was  to  drive  him  down  to  the 
Ettrick  Forest  and  Tweeddale.  After  a  time  of  labor 
among  the  heathen  of  Hoddam,  Kentigern  returned  to 
his  former  home  at  Glasgu,  and  there,  having  spent 
upwards  of  twenty  years  in  hardship  and  toil  among 
the  Britons  of  Strathclyde,  he  died  (603).  He  is 
described  as  fulfilling  completely  our  ideal  of  the  Mis- 
sionary Bishop  in  a  rude,  or  any  other,  age — fervent, 
unwearying  and  austere,  practicing  to  a  more  advanced 
degree  himself  the  principles  he  urged  upon  others, 
and  attracting  multitudes  by  the  fiery  zeal  of  his 
preaching.    A  dramatic  incident  of  his  life  at  Glasgu 

iSee  p.  314,  Vol.  I. 


LANARKSHIRE. 


81 


was  the  meeting  with  St.  Coluniba,  which  took  place 
at  Molendinar,  a  spot  already  hallowed  by  association 
with  St.  Ninian.  After  some  conversation,  the  two 
old  missionaries  exchanged  their  pastoral  staves  and 
parted.  "  Their  coming  together,"  says  Joceline — 
Kentigern's  biographer — "was  an  occasion  of  great 

joy-" 

On  the  site  attributed  by  tradition  to  this  meeting 
Glasgow  Cathedral  now  stands.  For  five  hundred 
years  after  the  death  of  St.  Kentigern — more  often 
called  St.  Mungo — next  to  nothing  is  known  of  the 
church  he  established  on  the  banks  of  the  Clyde. 
Then,  with  the  great  religious  movement  inaugurated 
by  Queen  Margaret,  followed  by  the  building  age  of 
her  son  David  I.,  whose  religious  foundations  are 
thickly  strewfn  over  all  of  southern  Scotland,  we  reach 
a  firm  historical  basis. 

By  King  David,  while  he  was  still  Prince  of  Cum- 
bria, the  See  of  Glasgow  was  re-established  and  his 
own  tutor,  John  Achaius,  set  over  it.  Bishop  John 
reconstructed  the  ancient  church,  and  when  his  build- 
ing wTas  destroyed  by  fire,  not  many  years  later,  the 
eminent  Bishop  Joceline  replaced  it  (1197)  with 
one  a  considerable  portion  of  which  is  still  standing 
(the  southwest  angle  of  the  lower  church  from  the 
transept  to  the  third  buttress  of  the  choir).  The  rest 
of  the  lower  church,  as  well  as  the  choir  above  it, 
belong  to  the  time  of  Bishop  William  de  Bondington 
(1233-58).  During  the  War  of  Independence  the 
Vol.  II. -6 


82       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

See  of  Glasgow  had  for  its  head  the  patriotic  Bishop 
Wyshart.  When  he  was  carried  off  a  prisoner  to 
England,  to  be  tried  for  giving  aid  to  the  Scottish 
National  Party,  one  of  the  charges  brought  against 
him  was  that,  having  obtained  Edward  L's  permission 
to  cut  timber  in  the  forest  of  Luss  to  erect  a  spire  on 
his  cathedral  church,  he  had  instead  taken  the  said 
timber  to  construct  engines  of  war  to  be  used  against 
the  King's  forces.  It  was  to  Bishop  Wyshart  that 
Bruce  applied  for  absolution  after  the  murder  of  the 
Red  Corny n.  He  got  it,  and  Wyshart  moreover  pro- 
vided him  with  robes  of  state  and  himself  officiated  at 
his  coronation  at  Scone  (March  27,  1306). 

Bishop  Lauder  (1408-25)  began  a  stone  tower  and 
went  on  with  the  chapter  house,  and  both  of  these 
were  completed  by  his  successor,  Bishop  Cameron, 
"  the  Magnificent,"  a  member  of  the  Clan  of  Lochiel, 
who  had  acted  as  secretary  to  the  Earl  of  Douglas. 
James  I.,  recognizing  his  abilities,  advanced  him  step 
by  step  until  he  became  Bishop  of  Glasgow  and 
Chancellor  of  Scotland.  By  him,  not  alone  the 
cathedral,  but  other  buildings  of  Glasgow  were  added 
to  and  beautified,  so  that  on  his  death  he  left  a  fair 
town  of  three  well-built  streets,  the  Drygate,  the 
High  Street  and  the  Ratan  Row  (the  Rottenrow  of 
to-day)  with  a  strong  Castle,  and  a  magnificent  cathe- 
dral, the  latter  surrounded  by  the  manses  or  parson- 
ages of  its  thirty-two  prebendaries.  In  1446  Bishop 
Cameron  was  succeeded  by  William  Turnbull,  whose 


Glasgow  Cathedral  from  S.  E. 


LANARKSHIRE. 


83 


services  to  Glasgow  were  of  still  more  enduring  value, 
he  having  been  the  founder  of  its  university.  Nicho- 
las V.  issued  the  necessary  bull  at  the  solicitation 
of  James  II.  in  1451,  and  the  new  university  re- 
ceived privileges  identical  with  those  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Bologna. 

Bishop  Blackadder,  consecrated  in  1484,  took  an 
active  part  in  the  rebellion  of  James  IV.  against  his 
father,  and  in  consequence  was  able  to  procure  the 
advancement  of  his  See  into  an  Archbishopric.  He 
died  while  on  a  journey  to  the  Holy  Land  and  was 
succeeded  by  James  Beaton,  who  later  was  promoted 
to  the  Metropolitan  See  of  St.  Andrews.  It  is  this 
prelate  who  was  concerned  in  the  "Cleanse  the 
Causeway  "  fray  in  Edinburgh.1  His  successor,  Gavin 
Dunbar,  who  had  been  tutor  to  James  V.,  has  an 
honorable  name  in  history  for  his  attitude  towards  the 
Reformers.  The  stringent  measures  which  followed 
the  appointment  of  David  Beaton  (nephew  of  Arch- 
bishop James  Beaton)  to  be  a  cardinal  had  already 
resulted  in  several  burnings  for  heresy,  when  a 
Bishop's  Court  was  appointed  to  be  held  in  Glasgow 
to  try  persons  accused  of  the  same  crime,  and  when 
two  of  these  were  condemned  to  be  burned  at  the 
stake,  the  Archbishop  protested  vigorously,  declaring 
that  the  Church  only  did  herself  harm  by  such  actions. 
His  remonstrance  was  of  no  avail  and  the  sentence 
was  carried  out  at  the  west  end  of  the  cathedral. 

1  See  p.  23,  Vol.  I. 


84       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

During  the  stormy  days  of  the  Reformation  James 
Beaton,  nephew  of  Cardinal  David,  was  Archbishop 
of  Glasgow.  He  proved  an  unfaithful  shepherd,  for 
when  in  1560  matters  had  reached  a  crisis,  he  collected 
all  the  plate  and  other  valuables  belonging  to  the 
cathedral,  and  worse  still  the  records  of  the  See  from 
its  earliest  times,  and  decamped  with  them  to  France. 
The  documents  were  deposited  in  the  Scots  College, 
and  the  Chartreuse  Convent  in  Paris,  where  they  re- 
mained for  upwards  of  two  hundred  years.  After  the 
French  Revolution  a  small  proportion  was  rescued  by 
Abbe  Macpherson,  and  sent  back  to  Scotland. 

Glasgow,  alone  of  the  cathedrals  of  the  mainland 
of  Scotland,  has  survived  practically  intact,  to  show 
the  present  generation  how  their  ancestors  could 
dedicate  their  means  and  talents  to  the  worship  of 
God. 

That  it  did  not  share  the  fate  of  so  many  other 
ecclesiastical  buildings  is  generally  attributed  to  the 
action  of  the  trades  of  the  city,  headed  by  one  James 
Rabat,  one  of  the  principal  magistrates.  It  is  true 
that  this  view  is  not  entertained  by  Mr.  James  Paton, 
author  of  the  Booh  of  Glasgow  Cathedral ;  but  there 
seems  no  real  reason  to  doubt  the  generally  accepted 
tradition  which  the  great  Sir  Walter,  with  extraordi- 
nary graphicness,  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Andrew 
Fairservice.1 

The  lower  church  was  constructed  in  order  to  pro- 

1  Bob  Roy,  chap.  xix. 


LANAKKSHIEE. 


85 


vide  a  level  foundation  for  the  main  building,  as  the 
ground  slopes  sharply  towards  the  east — a  happy 
necessity,  since  it  forms  "  one  of  the  finest  and  most 
characteristic  features  of  the  edifice.  It  is  supposed 
that  this  sloping  site  was  chosen  rather  than  the 
more  level  one  a  little  to  the  west,  in  order  to  bring 
the  high  altar  directly  over  the  tomb  of  St.  Mungo." 
The  western  towers,  another  characteristic  feature  of 
Glasgow  Cathedral,  were  destroyed  in  the  nineteenth 
century  in  mere  wanton  ignorance — the  same  spirit 
that  ordered  the  deplorable  alterations  of  St.  Giles,  in 
Edinburgh,  fifteen  or  twenty  years  earlier.  These 
constructions  consisted  of  a  tower,  called  the  Con- 
sistory House,  which  stood  at  the  southwest  angle, 
and  a  taller  tower  on  the  northwest,  terminating  in  a 
pointed  roof.  A  committee,  formed  in  1836  to  take 
steps  to  "preserve  and  complete  the  Cathedral,"  de- 
cided that  these  towers  were  of  comparatively  modern 
dates  and  interfered  with  the  uniformity  of  the  build- 
ing; and  so,  although  the  architects  of  Glasgow 
united  to  convince  them  of  their  error  and  the  citizens 
protested  earnestly,  the  towers  came  down — the  Con- 
sistory House  about  the  year  1845,  and  the  other 
three  years  later.  Large  quantities  of  documents, 
accumulated  since  the  Reformation,  were  burned  at 
the  same  time  as  rubbish.  The  mediaeval  monu- 
ment of  Bishop  Wyshart  is  at  the  west  end  of  the 
lower  church,  while  the  tomb  of  St.  Mungo  occupies 
the  place  of  honor  beneath  the  high  altar.  The 


86       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


vaulting  of  the  lower  church  is  pronounced  to  be 
"a  masterpiece  of  design  and  produces,  by  very  sim- 
ple means,  a  wonderful  variety  of  effect."  The  de- 
tails however  can  only  be  seen  obscurely,  by  reason 
of  the  modern  and  very  highly-colored  stained  glass 
with  which  the  windows  have  all  been  filled.  Directly 
beneath  the  sacristy  is  the  chapter  house — entered 
from  the  lower  church.  The  "  Blackadder  Aisle  "  is 
a  low  crypt  extending  to  the  south,  and  on  the  north 
is  another  low  building  which  Archhishop  Eyre  calls 
the  "  Hall  of  the  Vicar's  Choral."  He  believes  that 
it  was  intended  to  have  two  stories,  the  lower  to  serve 
for  "  a  song  school  and  hall,  where  the  vicar's  choral 
and  the  choir  boys  could  meet  for  rehearsals,"  and  the 
upper  possibly  for  a  robing  room. 

After  the  Reformation,  when  the  altars  and  images 
had  been  removed  and  even  all  the  old  monuments 
thrown  down,1  the  Cathedral,  after  the  custom  of  the 
Presbyterians,  was  divided  up  into  several  smaller 
places  of  worship,  the  crypt  being  taken  for  the  Barony 
parish  kirk.  It  is  here  that  Scott  introduces  Rob  Roy 
and  Frank  Osbaldistone. 

In  October,  1650,  Cromwell  marched  over  from 
Edinburgh,  to  investigate  for  himself  the  temper  of 
the  West  and  to  keep  a  way  clear  for  his  English  re- 
cruits through  the  country  north  of  Carlisle.  The  Rev. 
Zachary  Boyd,  minister  of  the  Barony  Kirk  at  the 

1  That  to  the  Stuarts  of  Minto  alone  excepted ;  it  has  a  rare  exam- 
ple of  Scottish  sixteenth  century  brasswork. 


LANARKSHIRE. 


87 


time,  stood  by  his  guns,  though  most  of  his  brethren 
had  left  the  city,  and  when  the  General  and  a  number 
of  his  officers  and  men  attended  the  morning  service, 
he  looked  upon  it  as  a  heaven-sent  opportunity  and 
preached  at  them  very  vigorously.  "  Shall  I  pull  the 
insolent  rascal  out  of  his  pulpit  by  the  ears  ?"  asked 
Secretary  Thurlow,  at  the  General's  elbow.  "  No, 
no,"  was  the  reply;  "he  is  one  fool  and  you  are 
another."  Cromwell  however  took  a  dreadful  re- 
venge, for  he  asked  the  minister  to  sup  with  him 
that  night,  and  conducted  prayer  for  so  many  hours 
that,  according  to  some  accounts,  the  company  was  not 
released  until  3  A.  M.  There  is  a  monument  in  the 
lower  church  to  some  of  the  Covenanters  executed  in 
the  "Killing  Time"  which  winds  up  with  the  fol- 
lowing sprightly  taunt : 

"  They'll  know  at  Resurrection  Day, 
To  murder  Saints  was  no  sweet  play." 

The  splendid  palace,  or  Castle  of  the  Bishops, 
which  formerly  stood  west  of  the  Cathedral,  has  com- 
pletely gone.  Soon  after  the  Eeformation  it  began  to 
fall  into  decay,  and  by  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century  it  was  a  ruin.  The  last  time  apparently  that 
it  was  used  was  after  the  '15,  when  about  three  hun- 
dred Highlanders  were  confined  there.  The  last  ves- 
tiges were  cleared  away  in  1890,  to  make  room  for 
the  Infirmary.  All  the  other  ancient  buildings  that 
once  lined  the  Cathedral  Square  have  disappeared  as 


88       SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 

well ;  the  manses  of  the  prebendaries,  and  the  house 
on  the  southwest,  where  Darnley  lay  ill  of  small-pox 
when  the  Queen  came  to  visit  him,  and  from  whence 
he  was  removed  to  the  Kirk  o'  Field,  in  Edinburgh. 

The  university  founded  in  1451  by  Bishop  Turn- 
bull  had  at  first  no  buildings  of  its  own.  The  classes 
met  in  the  cathedral  crypt,  and  later  in  a  house  on 
the  Ratan  Road,  that  hence  got  the  name  of  the 
"Auld  Pedagogy."  In  1465  they  were  moved  to 
larger  buildings,  standing  on  ground  given  by  James, 
first  Lord  Hamilton,  on  condition  that  the  regents 
and  students  should  pray  twice  daily  for  the  souls  of 
his  wife  aud  himself.  Between  1632  and  1660  a 
group  of  splendid  Jacobean  buildings  was  erected  on 
the  same  site ;  and  here  a  hundred  years  later  Benjamin 
Franklin  is  found  personally  directing  the  placing  of 
lightning  rods  on  the  lofty  gateway  steeple.  In  the 
college  grounds  Scott  lays  the  scene  of  the  duel  be- 
tween the  two  Osbaldistones.  In  1870  the  university 
was  removed  to  its  present  site  on  the  west  bank  of 
the  Kelvin,  the  North  British  Railway  Company  buy- 
ing the  old  building  and  erecting  the  college  station 
on  its  site.  The  present  early  English  buildings  of 
the  university,  put  up  in  twenty  years  (1866  to  1886), 
are  from  designs  by  Sir  Gilbert  Scott. 

When  Macaulay  was  installed  as  Rector  of  the 
university  in  1849  he  paid  a  glowing  tribute  to  the 
patron  of  learning  whose  bull,  issued  in  1450,  had 
called  the  university  into  life.    "The  university  came 


LANARKSHIRE. 


89 


into  existence  just  in  time  to  see  the  last  trace  of  the 
Roman  Empire  disappear  and  to  see  the  earliest 
printed  book.  At  this  conjuncture — a  conjuncture  of 
unrivaled  interest  in  the  history  of  letters — a  man 
never  to  be  mentioned  without  reverence  by  every 
lover  of  letters  held  the  highest  place  in  Europe. 
Our  just  attachment  to  that  Protestant  faith — to 
which  our  country  owes  so  much — must  not  prevent 
us  from  paying  the  tribute  which,  on  this  occasion 
and  in  this  place,  justice  and  gratitude  demand  to  the 
founder  of  the  University  of  Glasgow,  the  greatest  of 
the  revivers  of  learning,  Pope  Nicholas  the  Fifth." 

One  of  the  most  important  historical  events  that 
ever  took  place  in  Glasgow  was  the  meeting  of  the 
General  Assembly  held  in  the  nave  of  the  Cathedral 
in  1638.  The  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  who  was  acting 
as  Royal  Commissioner,  tried  for  seven  days  to  direct 
the  deliberations,  and  then,  finding  that  the  members 
were  evidently  set  on  overturning  the  whole  scheme 
of  Church  government  as  imposed  upon  them  by  the 
King,  abruptly  dissolved  the  Assembly  and  caused  a 
proclamation  to  be  made  at  the  Cross  forbidding  the 
members  to  conduct  any  further  business  "under  the 
pane  of  tressoun."  Notwithstanding  which,  they  not 
only  continued  to  meet,  but  to  transact  business  with 
increasing  vigor.  They  condemned  and  abolished  and 
abjured,  and  finally  they  tried  the  Bishops.  Spottis- 
woode,  the  historian,  Bishop  of  St.  Andrews,  was 
found  guilty  of  most  of  the  crimes  in  the  calendar; 


90       SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

the  Bishop  of  Orkney  was  "a  curler  on  the  ice  on 
the  Sabbath  Day,"  and  the  Bishop  of  Moray  went 
down  under  the  sweeping  charge  that  he  had  all  "  the 
ordinary  faults  of  a  Bishop/7  to  which,  moreover,  he 
had  added  another — one  would  suppose  quite  extra- 
ordinary one — that  of  having  "  danced  in  his  night- 
shirt at  his  daughter's  wedding."  Whether  his  crime 
lay  in  the  dancing  or  the  scantiness  of  his  apparel  is 
not  made  plain.  All  of  the  Bishops  in  turn  were  de- 
posed and  excommunicated,  and  a  general  signing  of 
the  Covenant  enjoined  on  the  people. 

With  the  Restoration  came  the  fresh  attempt  to  im- 
pose Prelacy  upon  Scotland.  "  Xow  Prelacy,  that  tree 
of  sorrow  and  death  in  Scotland,  is  planted/'  writes 
Robert  Wodrow  of  the  year  1662,  in  his  Sufferings  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  he  proceeds  to  tell  of 
how,  in  September  of  the  same  year,  the  Royal  Com- 
missioner, with  a  council  composed  of  sundry  Earls 
and  others  high  in  office,  "  came  to  the  west  country 
with  many  macers,  trumpeters  and  kettle-drums  "  to 
see  that  the  unwelcome  Bishops  were  treated  with 
proper  respect  and  obedience.  Very  wild  was  the 
reveling,  according  to  this  historian,  that  attended 
their  progress  through  Ayr,  while  the  meeting  held 
in  the  college  hall  in  Glasgow,  to  consider  the  "  very 
heavy  complaint  from  the  Archbishop,"  he  declares 
went  by  the  name  of  the  Drunken  Meeting  at  Glas- 
gow, because  all  the  members  "were  flustered  with 
drink  save  Sir  James  Lockhart  of  Lee."   This  gentle- 


LANARKSHIRE. 


91 


man's  head  must  indeed  have  been  clear,  for  he  per- 
ceived what  was  hidden  from  most  other  men  of  his 
time  whether  drunk  or  sober — namely,  that  the  drastic 
measures  adopted  by  the  Council  against  the  minis- 
ters would  surely  bring  about  "  contusions  and  ris- 
ings," and  worse.  He  opposed  them  with  all  the  force 
-of  his  reasoning,  but  quite  unavailingly. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Cathedral,  Glasgow  has 
preserved  but  few  of  her  ancient  buildings.  There  is 
the  Tolbooth  steeple  at  the  corner  of  the  Trongate 
and  High  Street — all  that  remains  of  a  large  and 
handsome  building  put  up  in  the  early  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century ;  and  the  steeple  of  the  old  Mer- 
chants' Hall  behind  Bridgegate  Street,  of  a  little  later 
date ;  and  also  the  seventeenth  century  Tron  steeple, 
once  a  part  of  the  collegiate  church  dedicated  to  St. 
Thanay  (mother  of  St.  Mungo),  which  was  burned 
down  in  1793. 

To  the  church  immediately  afterwards  erected  on 
this  site  came  Thomas  Chalmers  in  1815  from  Kil- 
many  in  Fife,  allured  at  once  by  the  promise  it  held 
out  of  work  amongst  the  poor  on  a  prodigious  scale, 
yet  alarmed  and  repelled  by  the  prospect  of  having 
to  mingle  with  wealthy  and  fashionable  parishioners. 
Here  he  acquired  immense  popularity  as  a  preacher, 
and  here  he  began  his  first  practical  efforts  to  grapple 
with  the  problem  of  "  home  heathenism  "  as  it  exists 
in  a  crowded  modern  city.  Four  years  later,  when 
he  removed  from  the  Tron  to  St.  John's,  the  largest 


92       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


and  the  poorest  parish  in  Glasgow,  he  had  a  splendid 
opportunity  to  put  his  theories  to  the  test,  and  in  fact 
did  demonstrate  them  with  triumphant  success.  By 
dividing  his  parish  into  districts,  each  under  the 
supervision  of  a  carefully-chosen  layman,  by  opening 
day  and  Sunday-schools  at  various  points,  and  by 
inaugurating  a  different  system  of  administrating  the 
poor  funds,  whereby  the  outlay  was  reduced  in  three 
years  by  four-fifths,  he  worked  a  truly  remarkable 
change  in  the  morals  and  material  condition  of  the 
people  of  the  parish.  For  a  part  of  the  time  spent 
at  St,  John's  he  had  Edward  Irving  for  his  assistant. 
Irving,  however,  went  to  London  in  1822,  and  two 
years  later  Chalmers,  finding  that  his  health  was  giv- 
ing way  under  the  strain  of  the  multifarious  duties 
he  had  undertaken,  accepted  the  professorship  of 
moral  philosophy  at  his  old  University  of  St.  An- 
drews, a  post  which  was  offered  to  him  entirely  unso- 
licited. 

In  making  this  change  he  believed  that  in  the 
training  of  young  ministers  to  do  work  in  their 
parishes  similar  to  what  he  had  done  in  Glasgow  he 
would  accomplish  more  than  if  he  remained,  possibly 
to  break  down.  The  step  he  took  was  much 
criticized. 

"  Glasgow,"  writes  Mrs.  Oliphant,  in  her  Life  of 
Chalmers,  "  was  overwhelmed  by  the  loss  of  the  great 
preacher,  who  had  done  almost  what  he  liked  with 
the  economy  and  the  heart  of  the  city.    The  com- 


LANARKSHIRE.  93 

inunity  was  wounded,  angry,  outraged,  like  a  cast-off 
lover.  To  leave  that  great  field,  upon  the  wants  of 
which  he  had  expatiated  so  often,  the  swarms  of 
helpers,  the  well-organized  band  Avhich  he  had  formed 
to  tight  all  that  penury  and  misery,  the  rich,  who  gave 
almost  whatever  he  wanted,  and  the  enthusiastic,  whose 
sympathy  surrounded  him  like  a  genial  atmosphere— 
for  what?  A  little  university,  a  small  town,  with  its 
coteries  and  gossip,  a  limited  classroom,  a  little  circle 
of  only  half-understanding  students —  .  .  .  The 
great  city  was  confused,  humbled,  mortified,  disap- 
pointed ;  there  was  a  brief  interval  almost  of  estrange- 
ment, of  hot  discussion,  attack  and  defence.  But 
finally  every  other  sentiment  sank  in  one  universal 
sense  of  loss  and  regret.  When  he  took  his  farewell 
of  Glasgow,  the  soldiers  had  to  be  called  out  to  keep 
the  church  doors,  which  were  being  carried  by  assault 
of  the  crowd." 

The  commercial  pre-eminence  of  Glasgow  dates 
from  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  when 
its  flourishing  trade  in  cured  salmon  and  herring 
brought  it  into  relations  with  both  France  and  Hol- 
land. Dried  fish  continued  to  be  the  chief  article 
of  export  until  after  the  Union,  when  Glasgow  imme- 
diately opened  up  a  brisk  trade  with  the  American 
Colonies. 

"  Perhaps  among  the  changeful  peculiarities  con- 
nected with  the  commercial  chronology  of  Glasgow," 
writes  Dr.  Strang  (author  of  Glasgow  and  its  Clubs), 


94       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


"  there  is  none  more  extraordinary  than  the  rise, 
progress  and  decay  of  the  tobacco  trade,  or  the  lofty 
position  in  the  social  circle  which  the  limited  class 
of  citizens  engaged  in  that  lucrative  traffic  so  speedily 
attained  and  so  soon  lost."  The  period  during  which 
this  trade  flourished  in  Glasgow  was  only  about 
seventy  years  in  all,  and  yet  in  that  brief  space  the 
foundations  were  laid  of  some  of  the  city's  present 
commercial  greatness ;  while  an  undying  tradition  was 
established  of  the  magnificent  scale  in  which  those 
merchant  princes  lived.  At  its  zenith  the  tobacco 
trade  was  controlled  by  a  little  group  of  about  thirty 
young  merchants.  Their  method  of  doing  business, 
while  peculiar,  was  at  the  same  time  simplicity  itself, 
and  required  very  little  capital.  A  ship  loaded  with 
goods  sailed  from  the  Clyde,  carrying  on  board  a 
supercargo,  who,  on  reaching  America,  exchanged  the 
cargo  for  tobacco.  The  merchant  who  provided  the 
goods  was  not  paid  until  the  vessel  had  made  her 
return  trip  and  the  tobacco  had  been  disposed  of; 
"  and  if  any  poor  manufacturer  or  tradesman  had  the 
hardihood  to  ask  for  payment  before  the  tobacco  lord 
offered  it,  he  could  never  again  expect  to  be  favored 
with  the  great  man's  custom." 

In  fact  the  arrogance  of  these  personages  was 
quite  extraordinary.  Dr.  Strang  says  that  "with  a 
hauteur  and  bearing  .  .  .  since  altogether  unparal- 
leled, they  kept  themselves  separate  from  the  other 
classes  of  the  town,  assuming  the  air  and  deportment 


LANAEKSHIEE. 


95 


of  persons  immeasurably  superior  to  all  around  them, 
and  treating  those  upon  whom  they  looked  down,  but 
on  whom  they  depended,  with  no  little  supercilious- 
ness." On  the  street  they  wore  a  distinguishing 
dress — cocked  hats,  curled  wigs,  cloaks  of  scarlet 
cloth  and  gold-headed  canes.  They  built  to  them- 
selves splendid  mansions,  they  purchased  fine  estates, 
they  feasted  and  lived  delicately ;  and  then  came  the 
deluge.  The  American  war  broke  out,  the  Colonies 
revolted,  and  the  tobacco  trade  died  a  sudden  and  a 
violent  death.  A  few  names  of  old  streets,  an  occa- 
sional house  or  two  and  a  glowing  tradition  are  all 
that  remain  to  tell  of  those  days  when  eighteenth- 
century  Glasgow  had  something  of  the  flavor  of 
Venice,  or  Bruges,  or  Florence,  in  the  days  of  their 
prime. 

There  is  however  another  point  of  likeness  with 
those  Continental  merchant  cities  which  has  not  died 
out,  being  in  fact  but  new  born.  In  nearly  every 
branch  of  commerce  Glasgow  is  still  pre-eminent,  in 
population  she  is  the  second  city  of  the  empire,  and 
she  also  holds  the  leading  place  in  art. 

"It  is  curious  to  note,"  writes  Mr.  Newbery,  in 
his  introduction  to  The  Glasgow  School  of  Painting, 
"  how  most  of  the  great  triumphs  of  art  have  been 
won  in  cities,  and  in  cities,  too,  whose  life  was  often- 
times of  the  busiest  and  most  complex  description. 
...  A  civic  life  would  seem  to  knock  fire  out  of 
men,  like  the  sparks  evolved  from  the  contact  of  flint 


96       SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

and  steel.  And  at  this  end  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  busiest,  noisiest, 
smokiest  cities,  that,  with  its  like  fellows,  make  up 
the  sum  total  of  the  greatness  of  Britain's  commercial 
position,  there  is  a  movement  existing,  and  a  com- 
pelling force  behind  it,  whose  value  we  cannot  yet 
rightly  appraise,  or  whose  influence  is  not  yet  bounded, 
but  which  both  movement  and  movers  may  yet,  per- 
haps, put  Glasgow  on  the  Clyde  into  the  hands  of  the 
future  historian  of  Art  on  much  the  same  grounds  as 
those  on  which  Bruges,  Venice  and  Amsterdam  find 
themselves  in  the  book  of  the  life  of  the  world." 

The  movement  referred  to  above  is  the  stand  taken 
some  years  ago  by  a  group  of  young  Glasgow  artists 
against  the  accepted  art  traditions  of  their  day.  The 
same  revolt  was  preparing  in  other  parts  of  the 
world;  but  here,  owing  to  the  conditions  of  things, 
the  movement  had  an  unusually  clear  field  to  work  in, 
and  was  crowned  with  a  corresponding  success.  The 
absence  of  any  absolute  power,  such  as  a  Royal  Acad- 
emy or  a  salon,  to  whose  judgment  the  artist  must  (if 
he  would  be  known)  submit  his  work,  and  on  whose 
decision  he  is  so  vitally  dependent,  leaves  the  Glas- 
gow painter  free  to  listen  to  the  guiding  of  his  own 
soul.  "There  never  was,  nor  at  the  present  moment 
does  there  exist,  either,  a  controlling  power  vested  in 
a  body  of  artists,  or  an  indication  of  opinion  arising 
from  a  cultivated  lay  community.  Artists  were,  and 
.-till  are,  free  to  do  what  they  like,  as  they  like,  pro- 


LANARKSHIRE. 


97 


vided  always  they  take  the  consequences  of  their  own 
ways  and  works."  And  so  they  took  their  own  road 
and  did  their  work  in  the  way  that  seemed  best  in 
their  own  eyes,  studying  eagerly  and  lovingly  the 
pictures  of  the  romantic  schools  of  Barbizon  and  Hol- 
land, brought  to  Glasgow  by  wealthy  and  public- 
spirited  collectors  "long  before  London  had  recog- 
nized even  the  existence  of  these  Continental  influ- 
ences "  and  the  "Glasgow  School,"  came  into  being. 

One  word  before  we  leave  Glasgow,  of  its  incom- 
parable water  supply.  In  1855  the  Town  Council 
got  with  difficulty  a  bill  through  Parliament  empow- 
ering it  to  acquire  the  very  inadequate  works  of  the 
existing  water  companies,  and  in  the  space  of  four 
years  the  work  of  conducting  water  from  the  romantic 
Loch  Katrine,  in  the  central  Perthshire  Highlands, 
thirty-four  miles  distant,  was  completed.  Twenty- 
five  years  later  a  further  connection  was  made  with 
Loch  Arklet,  so  that  to-day  Glasgow's  available  sup- 
ply is  seventy-five  million  gallons  a  day  of  the  purest 
water  in  the  kingdom,  with  arrangements  by  which 
this  can  be  increased  to  one  hundred  million  gallons, 
whenever  that  amount  may  be  required. 

Vol.  II.— 7 


CHAPTER  XII. 


RENFREW,  DUMBARTON  AND  STIRLING. 

Renfrewshire,  though  small  in  area,  is  mighty 
in  industrial  importance,  owing  to  its  geographical 
position,  for  all  of  its  northern  boundary — save  the 
few  miles  where  Lanarkshire  pushes  in  and  intercepts 
it — is  washed  by  the  busy  waters  of  the  Firth  of 
Clyde. 

Greenock,  the  great  seaport  of  the  Clyde,  the 
birthplace  of  James  Watt  in  1736,  is  a  modern  town, 
its  charter  dating  from  1 635.  It  is  the  point  from 
which  all  the  passenger  steamers  start  for  the  West 
Highlands  ;  it  is  also  the  anchorage  for  the  Atlantic 
liners,  a  shipbuilding  centre  and  the  home  of  the 
sugar  trade  of  Scotland. 

The  largest  and  most  flourishing  town  in  the  County 
of  Renfrew  is  Paisley,  now  celebrated  for  its  textile 
manufactures,  but  to  the  student  of  history  infinitely 
more  interesting  as  contiguous  to  Elderslie,  the  re- 
puted birthplace  of  Wallace,  and  as  being  the  ancient 
home  of  the  great  historical  family  of  Stewart,  which 
after  the  death  of  the  son  of  Robert  Bruce  became 
the  royal  family  of  Scotland  and  afterwards  of  Eng- 
land. It  is  from  this  family  that  the  present  King 
of  Great  Britain  bases  his  claim  to  the  Scottish  crown 

98 


KENFKEW. 


99 


in  unbroken  descent  from  the  first  Stewart  King  of 
Scotland,  although  by  strict  genealogical  precedence 
he  is  not  the  senior  representative  of  that  line.1 

Readers  of  Shakespeare  will  remember  the  promise 
of  the  witches ,  to  Macbeth's  companion,  Banquo, 
"  Thou  shalt  get  Kings,  though  thou  be  none." 2 
Part  of  the  plot  of  that  historical  tragedy  is  the 
murder  of  Banquo  to  prevent  the  accomplishment  of 
the  witches'  prophecy.  Banquo' s  son  Fleance,  how- 
ever, escapes,  and  from  him  the  Stewart  family  de- 
scends. Now  it  is  known  that  Shakespeare  got  his 
history  from  Hollinshed's  Chronicles  of  Scotland,  a 
work  translated  into  English  in  1577  from  Bellen- 
den's  History  of  Scotland,  which  was  itself  a  Scottish 
translation  of  the  Latin  History  of  Hector  Boece,  the 
first  principal  of  the  University  of  Aberdeen,  who 
published  his  great  work  in  1527.  According  to 
these  old  Scots  chronicles  Banquo  was  the  son  of 
Ferquhard,  a  younger  son  of  Kenneth  III.,  a  Scot- 

1  A  detailed  account  of  the  Stuart  family  after  the  Restoration 
and  their  loss  of  the  throne  of  Great  Britain  is  to  be  found  in  an 
article  by  Mr.  W.  B.  Blaikie, called  "The  Stuart  Descendants,"  in 
The  Genealogical  Magazine,  London,  May,  1900. 

2  "  Macbeth,"  Act  I.,  Scene  3.  Compare  also  the  passage  in  Act  IV., 
Scene  1,  where  the  witches  display  to  the  miserable  Macbeth  the 
apparition  of  the  eight  Kings,  "  Banquo's  issue,"  typifying  the  eight 
Stewart  Kings  of  Scotland  (Mary  is  included  as  a  King),  of  whom 
the  eighth  holds  up  a  magic  mirror  in  which  are  many  more ;  and 
some  I  see  "  That  twofold  balls  and  treble  sceptres  carry."  This 
refers  to  Mary's  son  James  and  his  hoped-for  successors,  bearing  the 
English  and  Scottish  orbs  of  independent  sovereignty  and  the  three 
sceptres  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland. 


100     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOM ANTIC. 

tish  monarch  of  the  tenth  century.  He  was  one  of 
the  great  men  of  King  Duncan's  court  and  was  mur- 
dered by  Macbeth  in  consequence  of  the  prophecy  of 
the  witches,  but  his  son  Fleance  managed  to  escape  to 
Wales,  where  he  married  a  daughter  of  the  Prince  of 
that  country,  by  whom  he  had  a  son  Walter,  who 
returned  to  Scotland  after  Macbeth' s  death  and  was 
appointed  by  Malcolm  III.  to  be  the  hereditary  Stew- 
ard of  his  household,  senescattus  domus  regis.  This 
Walter  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Alan  and  he  by  his 
son  Walter,  who  "was  greatly  in  favor  with  King 
David  I.,"  who  advanced  him  to  be  High  Steward  of 
Scotland,  senescallus  Scotice,  and  who  is  always  termed 
the  First  High  Steward. 

Such  was  the  universally  accepted  history  of  the 
origin  of  the  Stewart  family  until  just  one  hundred  years 
ago,  when  George  Chalmers,  a  Scottish  antiquary,  dis- 
covered from  documentary  evidence  that  this  Walter, 
the  first  High  Steward,  was  the  second  son  of  a 
Shropshire  Baron,  Alan,  who  was  the  son  of  one 
Flaad,  a  companion  of  William  the  Conqueror,  who 
had  obtained  from  that  monarch  the  lands  of  Oswes- 
try in  Shropshire.  The  eldest  son  of  Alan  remained 
in  England  and  founded  the  great  family  of  Fitzalan 
Earls  of  Arundel,  of  which  the  present  Duke  of 
Norfolk  is  the  representative  through  the  marriage  of 
his  ancestor  in  1556  with  the  heiress  of  the  last  Fitz- 
alan, Earl  of  Arundel.  Walter  Fitzalan,  the  younger 
son,  accompanied  David  I.  and  received  from  him 


KENFKEW. 


101 


grants  of  land  in  Scotland.  Of  late  years  genealo- 
gists have  endeavored  to  harmonize  the  two  stories  of 
origin,  and  to  prove  that  this  Flaad,  the  grandfather 
of  the  first  High  Steward,  was  either  the  same  as 
Fleance  (more  correctly  spelt  Fleanch)  or  possibly  his 
son,  and  that  other  differences  of  detail  are  merely  the 
natural  mistakes  that  arise  in  harmonizing  stories  pre- 
served merely  by  tradition.  Fleanch  means  in  Celtic 
"  the  heavenly,"  and  Flaad  can  easily  be  derived  from 
Flaitheas,  the  Gaelic  word  for  "heaven."  In  a  recent 
book,1  believed  to  be  inspired  by  the  late  Marquis  of 
Bute,  himself  the  head  of  a  branch  of  the  house  of 
Stewart,  an  attempt  is  made  to  trace  the  offspring  of 
Banquo  from  Wales  to  Brittany  and  thence  to  Eng- 
land with  the  Norman  Conquest.  Be  these  things  as 
they  may,  there  is  no  dubiety  whatever  about  the 
family  history  from  the  time  of  Walter,  whom  David 
I.  made  the  High  Steward  of  Scotland.  This  Walter 
was  succeeded  by  his  son  Alan  and  he  by  Walter  and 
he  by  Alexander,  the  fourth  High  Steward,  whose 
sister  married  the  Earl  of  Carrick,  King  Robert's 
grandfather.  This  Alexander  had  a  younger  son, 
John  of  Bonkyll,  the  faithful  friend  of  Wallace,  who 
was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Falkirk,  and  from  this 
John  Stewart  came  the  Earls  of  Lennox.  Nearly 
three  hundred  years  later  his  direct  descendant,  Henry 
Stewart,  Lord  Darnley,  by  marrying  Queen  Mary, 
the  last  of  the  elder  branch,  restored  the  royal  line  to 

1  Bute  in  the  Olden  Time,  by  J.  K.  Hewison,  Edinburgh,  1895. 


102     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


the  Stewart  family  and  became  the  ancestor  of  the 
Stuart  sovereigns  of  Great  Britain.  The  male  line 
of  this  branch  died  out  with  the  death  of  the  brother 
of  Prince  Charlie,  Cardinal  Henry  Stuart,  Duke  of 
York,  who  died  in  1807. 

The  elder  son  of  Alexander,  the  fourth  Steward, 
was  James,  a  friend  of  the  Bruce  family,  and  to  his 
son  Walter,  the  sixth  Steward,  Robert  Bruce  gave  his 
eldest  daughter  Marjory  as  wife.  When  Bruce's  son, 
David  II.,  died  childless,  Walter's  son  Robert,  the 
seventh  Steward,  grandson  of  King  Robert,  became, 
as  Robert  II.,  the  first  Stewart  King  of  Scotland. 
From  the  time  of  his  succession  the  title  of  High 
Steward  of  Scotland  has  been  and  still  is  borne  by 
the  heir  apparent  to  the  Crown.  Robert  II.,  of  whose 
irregular  marriage  mention  has  already  been  made, 
was  succeeded  by  his  eldest  son,  Robert  III.  His 
name  originally  was  John,  but  on  his  succession  this 
name  was  rejected  and  changed  to  Robert.  "  John  " 
had  been  the  name  of  Balliol  and  was  execrated  in 
Scotland.  It  was  also  the  name  of  the  grandfather 
of  Edward  I.,  John  Plantagenet,  the  most  hated  and 
unluckiest  King  that  England  had  known,  and  it  was 
the  name  of  the  hapless  King  of  France,  who  had  died 
a  prisoner  in  London  only  twenty-four  years  before. 
"  Robert,"  on  the  other  hand,  recalled  the  glories  of 
the  great  restorer  of  the  Scottish  monarchy. 

The  name  of  the  office  of  Steward  was  assumed  as 
the  family  name  about  the  time  of  the  first  High 


RENFREW. 


103 


Steward.  The  earliest  instance  of  its  being  spelled 
Stuwart  occurs  in  a  charter  of  the  time  of  Robert  II., 
written  in  Flemish  from  the  dictation  of  a  Scotsman, 
and  from  that  time  onward  the  name  in  records  gene- 
rally appears  as  Stewart.  The  form  Stuart  was  a 
French  rendering,  introduced  about  the  time  of  Queen 
Mary,  and  it  is  the  form  adopted  thereafter  by  the 
royal  family. 

But  to  return  to  the  County  of  Renfrew.  David  I. 
gave  to  Walter  Fitzalan,  the  High  Steward,  great 
grants  of  land  in  Renfrewshire,  and  to  this  day  his 
descendant,  the  heir  apparent  to  the  throne,  bears,  in 
addition  to  Stewardship  of  Scotland  (and  many  other 
things),  the  title  of  Baron  Renfrew,  which  was  the 
name  King  Edward  VII.  went  by  when  he  paid  his 
historical  visit  to  the  United  States. 

Ruins  of  Stewart  castles  are  scattered  far  and  wide 
over  the  county,  from  Innerkip,  placed  upon  a  high 
clifF  overlooking  the  Firth  of  Clyde,  a  mile  north  of 
Wemyss  Bay,  to  Crookston,  but  a  few  miles  west  of 
Glasgow. 

It  was  Walter,  the  first  High  Steward,  who  founded 
the  famed  Abbey  of  Paisley,  so  closely  associated  with 
the  royal  house,  bringing  for  the  purpose  a  Prior  and 
thirteen  monks  from  the  Cluniac  Convent  of  Benedict- 
ines, at  Wenlock,  in  his  native  Shropshire.  The  Pais- 
ley church  was  dedicated  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  St. 
James,  St.  Milburga  (the  Saxon  patroness  of  Wenlock) 
and  St.  Mirin,  a  Celtic  saint  and  contemporary  of  St. 


104     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  EOM ANTIC. 

Columba,  who  crossed  over  from  Ireland  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  sixth  century  and  settled  in  the  west  of 
Scotland  ;  and  there  was  an  early  church  at  Paisley 
dedicated  to  him.  The  first  High  Steward  dying  at 
Melrose  (he  had  spent  his  last  years  there  as  a  monk), 
was  brought  for  burial  to  Paisley,  where  his  daughter 
already  slept.  From  then  until  their  accession  to  the 
throne — and  in  a  few  instances  afterwards,  as  in  the 
cases  of  Robert  III.  and  the  two  wives  of  Robert  II., 
it  continued  to  be  the  burial-place  of  the  family.  In 
1245  Paisley,  hitherto  a  Priory,  was  made  an  Abbey 
by  Pope  Honorius  III.,  and  in  the  same  century  a 
fine  church  was  built,  only  to  be  nearly  destroyed 
during  the  War  of  Independence.  The  surviving 
parts  of  this  edifice — it  was  burned  by  the  English  in 
1 307 — are  "  a  portion  of  the  west  front  and  part  of 
the  south  wall  of  the  nave,  including  the  southeast 
doorway  to  the  cloister,  and  three  windows." 

In  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  the  church 
and  abbey  buildings  were  restored,  or,  to  speak  more 
correctly,  rebuilt.  They  consisted  of  a  church,  clois- 
ter and  conventual  buildings.  In  1557  the  Reform- 
ers drove  out  the  monks  and  "  burnt  all  the  ymages 
and  ydols  and  Popish  stuff  in  the  same."  The  Abbacy 
was  later  erected  into  a  temporal  Lordship,  and  was 
held  at  first  by  the  Hamiltons,  John  Hamilton, 
Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  having  been  its  last 
Abbot.  He  was  taken  prisoner  at  the  capture  of 
Dumbarton  Castle  (1571),  clad  in  full  armor,  and 


EENFREW. 


105 


was  sent  to  Stirling,  where  he  was  hanged  in  his 
canonicals. 

At  the  west  end  of  the  north  aisle  of  the  Abbey 
Church  there  is  a  stone,  generally  thought  to  belong 
to  his  grave.  It  is  carved  with  the  Archbishop's 
coat-of-arms,  the  initials  "J.  H."  and  the  words, 
"  Misericordia  et  Pax." 

The  nave  and  portions  of  the  choir  and  transepts 
are  still  standing — the  latter  in  ruins.  At  the  end  of 
the  south  transept  is  St.  Mirin's  Aisle,  a  vaulted 
chapel  in  good  preservation,  and  containing  what  is 
thought  to  be  the  tomb  of  Marjory,  daughter  of 
King  Robert  Bruce,  wife  of  Walter,  the  sixth  High 
Steward,  and  mother  of  King  Robert  II.  She  was 
killed  by  a  fall  from  her  horse,  near  Paisley,  1316. 
The  tomb  was  broken  up  and  cast  out  in  the  eight- 
eenth century,  by  Thomas,  Earl  of  Dundonald,  who 
wished  to  let  for  building  purposes  the  part  of  the 
churchyard  where  it  stood,  it  having  already  been 
removed  from  the  interior  of  the  church  by  his  father. 
The  fragments  were  found  in  1788  by  Dr.  Boog,  the 
minister  of  the  parish,  carefully  put  together  and 
set  up  in  St.  Mirin's  Chapel,  usually  called  the  Sound- 
ing Aisle,  by  reason  of  its  echo.  The  popular  name, 
"  Queen  Bleary's  Tomb/'  comes  from  a  confusion  of 
ideas,  tradition  giving  the  name  of  Bleary  to  Rob- 
ert II.,  her  son,  on  account  of  some  peculiarity  of 
his  eyes.1 

1The  carvings  of  the  frieze  below  the  eastern  window  in  this 


106     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Before  the  high  altar,  in  the  now  roofless  chancel, 
lies  King  Robert  III.,  who  died  of  a  broken  heart  on 
receiving  news  of  the  capture  by  the  English  (April, 
1406)  of  his  surviving  son,  the  Earl  of  Carrick 
(James  I.),  when  on  his  way  to  France ;  the  Duke 
of  Rothesay,  the  King's  eldest  son,  having  it  was 
thought  been  starved  to  death  at  Falkland  four  years 
earlier. 

Robert  III.  was  the  last  Stewart  sovereign  buried 
at  Paisley,  and  until  Queen  Victoria,  in  1888,  caused 
the  present  recumbent  Gothic  cross  to  be  placed  over 
his  grave,  it  was  unmarked  by  so  much  as  a  stone. 

The  Hamiltons,  their  descendants  the  Earls  (now 
Dukes)  of  Abercorn,  and  the  Cochranes,  Earls  of 
Dundonald,  who  have  held  the  Paisley  lands  by  turns, 
built  up  three  of  the  four  sides  of  the  cloister,  incor- 
porating some  of  the  old  conventual  buildings  and 
forming  the  whole  into  a  residence  called  The  Place 
of  Paisley,  now  partly  demolished  in  order  to  widen 
the  street. 

chapel  have  been  identified  by  Dr.  Cameron  Lees  as  scenes  in  the 
life  of  St.  Mirin.  On  the  extreme  left,  St.  Mirin  is  brought  to  St. 
Congal  by  his  mother;  next,  St.  Congal  gives  him  the  religious 
habit;  next,  Mirin  assumes  charge  of  the  Banchor  Monastery;  the 
next  ones  are  missing;  then  Mirin  is  driven  from  the  camp  of  an 
Irish  King;  next,  the  King  (in  answer  to  the  Saint's  prayers)  is 
visited  with  the  pains  of  his  wife,  then  in  confinement ;  next,  the 
Queen  lying  in  her  bed  ;  then  the  King  kneeling  to  the  Saint.  The 
next  two  represent  a  brother  looking  through  a  keyhole  at  Mirin, 
enveloped  in  miraculous  light,  and  the  Saint  restoring  life  to  a  dead 
man.— The  Abbey  of  Paisley ,  Rev.  J.  Cameron  Lees,  D.D. 


RENFREW. 


107 


After  the  Reformation  the  church,  though  used  as 
a  Protestant  place  of  worship,  was  allowed  to  fall 
into  the  most  deplorable  state  of  neglect.  The  Rev. 
Dr.  Cameron  Lees,  who  has  written  an  exhaustive 
history  of  the  Abbey,  gives  a  depressing  picture  of 
its  condition  when  he  went  there  in  1859.  Ruin, 
dirt,  decay,  desecration,  and,  if  something  were  not 
done  and  done  promptly,  impending  dissolution 
reigned  throughout.  Fortunately  he  and  his  col- 
leagues were  not  of  the  kind  to  see  so  grave  a  na- 
tional misfortune  threatening  and  not  take  steps  to 
avert  it.  A  committee  was  formed  in  1862,  funds  were 
raised,  and  within  a  year  enough  had  been  done  at 
least  to  stop  the  progress  of  dilapidation  and  to  put 
the  whole  into  its  present  state  of  decency  and  order. 

Some  seven  miles  southwest  of  Paisley  is  the  ruined 
Castle  of  Ranfurly,  the  ancient  seat  of  the  Knoxes, 
the  ancestors  of  John  Knox,  a  property  which  be- 
longed to  the  family  for  centuries,  but  was  alienated 
in  1665. 

One  of  the  early  events  in  the  history  of  Renfrew- 
shire is  the  invasion  of  Somerled,  Lord  of  the  Isles, 
who  sailed  up  the  Clyde  in  1164,  with  a  great  fleet, 
bent  upon  the  conquest  of  all  Scotland.  He  landed 
at  Renfrew,  but  found  himself  confronted,  not  only,  it 
would  appear,  by  an  army  of  flesh  and  blood,  but  by 
the  powers  of  the  unseen  as  well — the  Bishop  of 
Glasgow  having  invoked  the  aid  of  the  blessed  St. 
Kentigern  against  the  invader. 


108     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

The  result  was  the  utter  defeat  of  the  latter' s  pow- 
erful force  by  a  small  number  of  natives,  near  Ren- 
frew, and  the  death  of  the  leader.  The  most  famous 
battle,  however,  in  the  annals  of  the  county  was 
fought  five  hundred  years  later  at  the  little  village  of 
Langside.  Queen  Mary  had  effected  her  romantic 
escape  from  Lochleven  Castle  on  the  2d  of  May, 
1568.  Eleven  days  later,  when  attempting  to  pass 
from  Hamilton  Palace,  where  she  had  been  staying  in 
the  meantime,  to  the  stronger  Castle  of  Dumbarton, 
her  forces  were  met  and  defeated  by  those  of  the 
Regent  Moray  at  Langside,  which  occupies  a  height  a 
mile  or  so  south  of  Glasgow.  The  Queen's  followers 
having  neglected  to  occupy  this  important  post  before 
she  set  forth,  there  was  a  rush  of  both  sides  to  seize 
it.  Moray's  people  being  the  first  to  arrive,  Argyll 
stationed  the  Queen's  forces  on  the  hill  to  the  east. 
The  battle  lasted  less  than  an  hour  and  ended  in  the 
defeat  and  rout  of  the  Queen's  party.  "  In  the  num- 
ber engaged  and  the  nature  of  the  contest  it  was  of 
the  character  of  a  mere  skirmish,  but  the  conditions 
in  which  it  was  fought  rendered  it  a  decisive  battle. 
It  settled  the  fate  of  Scotland,  affected  the  future  of 
England  and  had  its  influence  over  all  Europe." 

In  The  Abbot  Scott  represents  the  Queen  as  watch- 
ing the  battle  from  a  spot  in  the  grounds  of  Crook- 
ston  Castle.  This  (Stewart)  Castle  had  been  the 
property  of  Lord  Darnley,  and  the  royal  pair  had 
spent  a  part  of  their  honeymoon  there,  a  certain  yew 


RENFREW. 


109 


tree— being  especially  associated  with  those  happier 
days — became  so  hacked  and  injured  by  relic  hunters 
that  the  proprietor,  Sir  John  Maxwell,  had  it  cut 
down  about  the  year  1817.  It  is  to  this  spot  that 
Scott  brings  the  Queen  and  her  party,  but  as  it  is 
three  or  four  miles  from  the  scene  of  the  battle,  and 
moreover  not  on  the  side  by  which  the  Queen's  people 
arrived,  it  could  not  have  been  from  there,  but,  as  a 
more  likely  tradition  asserts,  from  a  field  near  Cath- 
cart  Castle  that  she  watched  the  destruction  of  her 
hopes. 

Not  many  miles  away,  on  the  Blythswood  estate 
(the  seat  of  Archibald  Campbell,  first  Lord  Blyths- 
wood), and  quite  close  to  the  high  road  leading  from 
Renfrew  to  Inchinnan,  there  is  a  huge  boulder  mark- 
ing, it  is  said,  the  spot  where  the  younger  Argyll  (the 
Earl)  was  captured  in  1685.  He  had  escaped  from 
Edinburgh  Castle,  where,  twenty  years  after  his 
father's  execution,  he  was  confined  on  a  charge  of 
contumacy  and  treason  in  not  accepting  the  "  Test,"  a 
declaration  that  the  King  was  supreme  in  all  causes, 
"  as  well  ecclesiastical  as  civil."  He  had  then,  in  168 1 , 
gone  to  Holland,  where  he,  the  Duke  of  Monmouth  and 
a  number  of  refugees  had  planned  the  ill-advised  in- 
surrection of  1685,  which  in  England  ended  with 
Monmouth's  defeat  at  Sedgemoor  and  subsequent  cap- 
ture and  execution.  Argyll  landed  in  Scotland,  but 
the  people  of  the  West  disappointed  his  hopes  and 
failed  to  rise.    The  Earl  was  making  his  way  back 


110     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


to  his  own  country  from  Lanarkshire  disguised  as 
a  peasant,  when  he  was  recognized  and  taken  pris- 
oner. As  he  had  already  been  tried  for  treason  and 
found  guilty,  he  was  executed  on  the  old  charge 
without  fresh  trial.  The  following  is  the  affectingly 
simple  note  he  wrote  to  his  son  just  before  his  execu- 
tion ; 

Edinburgh  Castle,  30  June,  '85. 

Deare  Johne  :— 

We  parted  suddenly,  but  I  hope  shall  meete  happily  in  heaven. 
I  pray  God  bless  you,  and  if  you  seeke  him  he  will  be  found  of 
you.  My  wiffe  will  say  all  to  you,  pray  love  and  respect  her.  I 
am  your  loving  father, 

Argyll. 

For  Mr.  Johne  Campbell. 

There  was  a  famous  outbreak  of  the  Witch  Super- 
stition in  Renfrewshire  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
Seven  women  were  burned  at  one  time  (in  1662)  at 
Gourock,  and  a  very  celebrated  trial  took  place  at 
Paisley  in  1697,  when,  according  to  the  account, 
Christian,  the  eleven-year-old  daughter  of  John  Shaw, 
laird  of  Bargarran,  quarreled  with  one  of  the  maid- 
servants, and  out  of  malice  pretended  to  have  been 
bewitched  by  her.  "  She  forthwith  began,  according 
to  the  common  practice  in  such  cases,  to  vomit  all 
manner  of  trash,  to  be  blind  and  deaf  on  occasion,  to 
fall  into  convulsions  and  to  talk  a  world  of  nonsense, 
which  the  hearers  received  as  the  quintessence  of 
afflicted  piety.  By  degrees  a  great  many  persons 
were  implicated  in  the  guilt  of  the  maid-servant,  and 


RENFREW. 


Ill 


no  fewer  than  twenty  were  condemned  and  five  suf- 
fered death  on  the  Gal  low  Green  of  Paisley,  while 
one  strangled  himself  in  prison,  or,  as  report  went, 
was  strangled  by  the  devil,  lest  he  should  make  a  con- 
fession to  the  detriment  of  the  service." 

The  chief  of  the  ancient  seats  of  Renfrewshire, 
apart  from  Innerkip,  Ranfurly  and  Crookston,  already 
alluded  to,  are  first,  Newark  Castle,  on  a  point  of  land 
running  out  into  the  Clyde  at  Port  Glasgow,  now  the 
property  of  Sir  Michael  Shaw-Stewart  and  used  as  a 
tenement  house  by  several  poor  families.  Second,  the 
old  seat  of  the  Polloks  of  Pollok,  which  overlooks 
the  Yale  of  Clyde  and  Cart  from  a  commanding  posi- 
tion in  the  hilly  northern  district  of  Mearns  parish. 
It  was  burned  to  the  ground  in  1882,  but  has  since 
then  been  rebuilt  by  the  present  owner,  Mrs.  Fergus- 
son  Pollok.  Third,  Elderslie,  an  unpretending  house 
in  the  village  of  that  name,  two  miles  west  of  Paisley, 
but  of  great  interest  as  having  replaced  an  earlier  one 
on  the  same  site,  reputed  to  be  the  birthplace  of  Sir 
William  Wallace,  who  was  sometimes  called  the 
"  Knight  of  Elderslie."  Near  Elderslie  is  the  stump 
of  an  old  oak  called  Wallace's  Oak,  which  on  some 
occasion  is  reputed  to  have  sheltered  Wallace  and  his 
company,  but  which  has  literally  been  hacked  away 
by  relic  hunters.  Last  of  all  is  Cathcart  Castle  on  the 
White  Cart,  in  the  extreme  eastern  part  of  the  county. 
It  was  built  by  the  Barons  of  Cathcart  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  continued  to  be  inhabited  until  about 


112     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


1740,  when  it  was  abandoned  for  a  modern  house  in 
the  vicinity.  As  already  mentioned,  it  was  from 
"  Court  Knowe  "  in  the  Cathcart  grounds  that  Queen 
Mary  probably  watched  the  battle  of  Langside. 


DUMBARTON. 


Dumbarton  Castle,  towards  which  she  was  trying  to 
win  her  way  when  Fate  overtook  her  that  Spring 
day,  stands  on  the  opposite  shore  of  the  Clyde,  on  a 
rocky  promontory  in  Dumbartonshire,  formed  by  the 
junction  of  the  Severn  and  the  Clyde.  And  on  this 
(basalt)  rock  the  now  somewhat  rare  "true  Scots 
thistle"  is  said  still  to  grow  wild.  From  earliest 
times,  as  from  its  position  might  be  expected,  some 
sort  of  fortress  occupied  the  site,  and  there  was  situ- 
ated the  capital  of  the  Kingdom  of  Strathclyde — 
Dunbreatan  (fort  of  the  Britons) — after  this  kingdom 
had  passed  under  the  dominion  of  the  Kings  of 
Scotia.  The  district  roughly  covered  by  the  present 
County  of  Dumbarton  was  formed  into  the  Earldom 
of  Lennox  and  given  by  'William  the  Lion  to  his 
brother  David;  but  from  the  year  1238  to  the  pres- 
ent day,  the  Castle  has  always  appertained  to  the 
Crown.  As  the  key  to  the  West  of  Scotland  it 
played  an  important  part  throughout  the  AVar  of  In- 
dependence and  in  the  civil  discords  of  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries.  At  the  time  of  Wallace's  cap- 


Dumbarton  Castle,  from  the  Pier 


DUMBARTON. 


113 


ture  at  Glasgow  (1305)  by  John  Menteith,  the  latter 
held  it  for  the  English,  and  there  is  a  tradition  that 
the  patriot  chief  was  confined  there  for  a  week,  prior  to 
his  removal  for  trial  to  London.  It  is  only  within 
the  past  ten  or  twelve  years  that  a  great  two-handed 
sword,  believed  to  have  been  his,  was  removed  from 
thence  to  the  Wallace  Monument,  near  Stirling. 

Like  an  amazingly  large  number  of  other  places, 
Dumbarton  Castle  has  its  associations  with  Queen 
Mary.  Here  she  was  brought,  in  1548,  when  not  six 
years  old,  from  the  Monastery  of  Inchmahome,  and 
taken  aboard  a  French  ship  which  carried  her  off  to 
France.  The  fortress,  too,  held  out  for  her  for  three 
years  after  her  flight  to  England  in  1568,  and  served 
as  the  chief  point  of  communication  between  the 
Queen  and  her  friends  on  the  Continent.  Soon  after 
the  appointment  of  the  Earl  of  Lennox,  Darnley's 
father,  and  consequently  grandfather  to  the  young 
King,  to  be  Regent,  a  scheme  was  set  on  foot  to  cap- 
ture this  important  stronghold.  Thomas  Craufurd  of 
Jordanhill,  kinsman  to  the  Regent  and  formerly  in 
the  service  of  his  son,  commanded  the  enterprise,  and 
leaving  Glasgow  on  the  night  of  April  1,  1571,  at 
the  head  of  a  hundred  picked  men,  reached  the  foot 
of  the  cliff  about  an  hour  after  midnight.  They  had 
with  them  a  man  who  knew  every  inch  of  the  surface, 
every  cranny,  crevice  and  foothold  in  the  rock,  and 
were  of  course  provided  with  ropes  and  scaling  lad- 
ders. Even  so,  had  the  garrison  been  on  the  alert  the 
Vol.  II.— 8 


114     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 

attempt  could  not  but  have  failed ;  years  of  security 
had,  however,  made  them  careless;  and  even  the 
extraordinary  accident  of  one  of  the  attacking  party 
going  into  a  fit  and  clinging  to  the  ladder  so  that  he 
could  not  be  wrenched  away  (nor  could  the  others  get 
by  him)  did  not  stop  them  for  long,  for  Crawford  had 
the  man  made  fast  with  ropes,  and  they  turned  the 
ladder  around.  A  heavy  mist,  their  own  intrepidity 
and  agility,  for  they  had  to  swarm  up  the  steep  face 
of  the  cliff,  at  some  places  hitherto  deemed  inaccessi- 
ble, and  the  laxity  of  the  sentinels — these  all  com- 
bined to  bring  success,  and  in  the  early  morning  the 
stronghold  was  taken  almost  without  loss  of  life  on 
either  side.  Fleming,  the  Governor,  escaped  down 
the  precipice  and  made  his  way  to  Argyllshire  in  an 
open  boat  and  later  got  away  to  France. 

"In  consideration  of  this  extraordinary  feat  of 
dexterity,  which  Sir  Walter  Scott  held  to  be  unparal- 
leled in  ancient  or  modern  history,  Captain  Craufurd 
received  a  grant  of  several  lands  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Glasgow,  whence  his  title  of  Jordanhill,  besides  an 
annuity  of  £200  Scots,  payable  out  of  the  Priory  of 
St.  Andrews." 

On  the  Castlehill,  a  wooded  knoll  about  a  mile 
west  of  Dumbarton,  on  the  north  side  of  the  road,  is 
the  site  where  stood  the  Castle  of  Cardross,  in  which 
King  Robert  Bruce  died,  it  is  said,  of  leprosy,  on 
June  7,  1329,  in  his  fifty-fourth  year.  It  was  from 
Cardross  that  he  dictated  his  famous  "Testament," 


DUMBARTON. 


115 


which,  when  not  neglected,  was  ever  the  safeguard  of 
his  country.  Both  Froissart  and  Archdeacon  Bar- 
bour have  chronicled  the  scene  of  his  ending,  and  the 
subsequent  noble  adventure  of  the  good  Sir  James 
Douglas.  Finding  that  "  ther  was  no  way  with  hym 
but  deth,"  the  dying  monarch  gathered  his  trusted 
friends  around  him,  and  addressing  Douglas,  he 
reminded  him  of  his  heavy  task,  "to  uphold  and 
sustayn  the  ryght  of  this  realme,"  which  had  pre- 
vented his  accomplishing  a  solemn  vow  he  had  made, 
that  when  his  troubles  and  wars  were  over,  he  would 
go  to  the  Holy  Land  and  war  against  Christ's  ene- 
mies ;  but  "  our  Lorde  wolde  not  consent  thereto." 
Yet  what  he  could  not  do  in  life,  he  wished  to  do 
after  death.  He  charged  his  friends  to  embalm  his 
heart  after  his  death,  and  to  give  Douglas  a  sufficient 
sum  from  the  royal  treasury  to  convey  him  in  proper 
state  to  Jerusalem,  there  to  bury  his  heart  in  the 
Holy  Sepulchre ;  "  and  where  so  ever  ye  come,  let  it 
be  knowen  howe  ye  cary  with  you  the  harte  of  Kyng 
Robert  of  Scotland  at  his  instaunce  and  desire  to  be 
presented  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre."  Douglas,  who 
hardly  "  myght  speke  for  wepyng,"  accepted  the 
dying  King's  mission ;  and  "  soone  after  thys,  noble 
Robert  de  Bruse  trepassed  out  of  thys  uncertayne 
worlde." 

In  the  spring,  Douglas,  who  first  obtained  from 
King  Edward  III.  a  protection  of  seven  years  for 
his  adventure,  set  sail  with  a  noble  company  from 


116     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 

Montrose.  He  halted  for  twelve  days  at  Helvoet- 
sluys,  in  Holland,  but  did  not  land.  Learning  here 
that  King  Alfonso  of  Spain  was  at  war  with  the 
Saracen  King  of  Granada,  he  thought  "  suerely  he 
could  not  bestowe  his  tyme  more  nobly  than  to  warre 
ayeynst  Godde's  enemies,  and  that  entreprise  done, 
then  he  thought  to  go  forth  to  Jerusalem  and  to 
acheve  that  he  was  charged  with."  So  he  sailed  for 
Valencia  and  went  straight  to  the  seat  of  war.  Soon 
after  he  met  in  battle  Osmyn,  the  Saracen  King.  The 
Spanish  King  gave  Douglas  the  command  of  the  van- 
guard. When  he  came  to  the  enemy,  taking  the 
casket  which  contained  Bruce' s  heart  from  his  breast, 
he  threw  it  with  all  his  force  into  the  Saracen  ranks, 
and  crying  out,  "  Pass  first  in  fight,  as  thou  wert  ever 
wont ;  Douglas  will  follow  thee  or  die ! "  he  charged 
the  Moslem  cavalry.  He  was  surrounded,  but  fight- 
ing his  way  to  where  the  King's  heart  lay,  there  he 
fell.  Thus  died  the  good  Sir  James,  one  of  the  noblest 
patriots  that  Scotland  ever  knew.  He  had  fought  in 
seventy  battles,  out  of  which  more  than  fifty  were 
victories. 

When  lying  at  Helvoetsluys  he  was  visited  on 
board  ship  by  a  much-esteemed  English  knight, 
whose  face  was  scarred  with  wounds.  The  knight 
expressed  his  surprise  that  so  renowned  a  warrior  as 
Douglas  should  not  have  a  mark  to  show.  "  Praise 
be  to  God,"  replied  Sir  James,  "who  ever  gave  me 
hands  to  defend  my  face."    The  bleeding  heart  sur- 


DUMBARTON. 


117 


mounted  by  a  regal  crown  was  added  to  the  armorial 
bearings  of  the  Douglases  and  is  carried  by  them  to 
this  day. 

King  Robert's  heart  was  borne  back  to  Scotland  by 
the  survivors  of  the  expedition  under  the  leadership 
of  Sir  Simon  Locard,  of  the  Lee  (thenceforward  known 
as  Lockhart).  It  was  deposited  in  the  church  of 
Melrose  Abbey.  No  monument  marks  the  place,  nor 
is  there  need.  Unerring  tradition  has  preserved  the 
spot  where  lies  the  heart  of  him  whom  even  to-day 
his  countrymen  never  mention  but  with  words  of 
gratitude  and  affection. 

The  mutilation  of  Bruce's  body  was  in  strict  con- 
travention of  a  rule  issued  by  Pope  Boniface  VIII. 
in  1299.  Possibly  the  Scottish  nobles  did  not  know, 
possibly  the  King's  dying  wishes  were  thought  more 
important  than  any  papal  bull,  and  they  preferred 
incurring  the  pains  of  excommunication  to  thwarting 
the  desires  of  their  dearly  loved  sovereign.  The 
punishment  did  not  last  long ;  two  years  after  the 
King's  death  the  Pope  granted  absolution  to  all  who 
had  taken  part  in  this  "  inhuman  and  cruel  treatment." 

A  mile  or  two  above  Dumbarton,  Dunglass  Castle 
occupies  another  rocky  cliff  overhanging  the  Clyde. 
It  was  the  ancient  stronghold  of  the  Colquhouns,  and 
would  probably  be  in  fair  preservation  to-day  had  the 
authorities  not  taken  from  it  the  materials  wherewith 
to  rebuild  the  quay  in  1735. 

Koseneath,  a  seat  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  stands 


118     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 

on  a  point  of  land  at  the  southeastern  extremity  of 
the  long  peninsula  that  extends  between  Gare  Loch 
and  Loch  Long.  This  Castle,  one  of  the  many  ex- 
travagances of  George  William,  sixth  Duke  of  Argyll, 
the  friend  of  the  Prince  Regent,  has  never  been  fin- 
ished. It  was  built  about  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  to  replace  the  old  Castle,  the  scene  of 
the  later  portion  of  Scott's  Heart  of  Midlothian,  then 
lately  burned  down. 

Dumbartonshire  is,  for  natural  scenery,  among  the 
most  highly  favored  counties  of  Scotland.  Its  south- 
eastern part,  including  the  detached  parishes  of  Kirk- 
intilloch and  Cumbernauld,  is  Lowland,  but  beyond 
the  Leven  the  scenery  becomes  bolder,  and  with  the 
exquisite  stretch  of  Loch  Lomond  on  the  east  and  the 
Gare  Loch  and  Loch  Long  on  the  west,  it  breaks  into 
the  wild  beauty  of  typical  Highland  scenery  in  Luss 
and  Arrochar. 

Loch  Lomond  is  to-day  a  great  resort  of  tourists, 
and  more  beautiful  scenery  it  is  impossible  to  imagine. 
Six  hundred  years  ago  this  tourist  route  was  travelled 
by  a  party  who  could  hardly  be  termed  pleasure  seek- 
ers. When  Bruce,  after  his  defeats  in  Perthshire, 
determined  to  seek  refuge  in  the  Western  Islands  he 
came  to  the  shores  of  Loch  Lomond.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  go  around  by  the  north  end,  as  he  would  then 
have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Lord  of  Lorn ;  at 
the  southern  end  Sir  John  Menteith,  Wallace's  be- 
trayer, lay  in  wait.    All  the  boats  had  been  removed, 


DUMBAKTON. 


119 


but,  as  often,  Douglas  fouud  a  way  out  of  the  diffi- 
culty. After  much  search  he  found  "  a  litell  sonkyn 
bate"  (a  little  sunken  boat),  which  however  would 
only  hold  three  passengers.  This  was  patched  up  and 
the  party  was  ferried  over.  The  passage  naturally 
took  a  long  time  and  it  adds  immensely  to  the  human 
interest  of  the  story  to  be  told  that  Bruce  (just  like  a 
modern  traveller)  carried  with  him  the  latest  romance 
of  the  time,  Chanson  cle  Roland,  and  to  beguile  the 
weary  wait,  he  read  aloud  to  his  followers.  The 
passage  he  selected  was  the  romance  of  Fierabras 
and  how  the  twelve  peers  were  besieged  in  Aigremont 
by  King  Lavyne,  thousands  attacking  twelve,  yet 
how  they  held  out  until  Charlemagne  came  to  their 
rescue  and  beat  Lavyne  and  delivered  his  friend  and 
won  the  spear  and  the  nails  and  the  crown  that  Jesus 
bore  and  part  of  the  holy  cross. 

"  The  gud  King,  upon  this  maner, 
Comfortyt  thaim  that  war  him  ner, 
And  maid  thaim  gamyn  [mirth]  and  solace 
Till  that  his  folk  all  passyt  wa." 

The  surface  of  Loch  Lomond  is  charmingly  studded 
with  islands.  Inchmurrin,  the  most  southerly  of 
these,  has  the  ruins  of  what  was  one  of  the  strongest 
of  the  many  Castles  of  the  Lennox.  It  was  here 
that  Sir  John  Colquhoun  of  Luss  with  a  number  of 
his  clansmen  were  surprised  and  slain  by  a  maraud- 
ing party  from  the  Western  Islands  in  1439.  They 
lie  buried  beneath  the  rank  sod  of  the  island,  but 


120     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


there  is  nothing  to  mark  the  spot.  Inchmurrin  be- 
longs to-day  to  the  Duke  of  Montrose  and  has  been 
turned  into  a  deer  park. 

The  district  on  the  west  shore  of  Loch  Lomond  is 
associated  with  some  savage  passages  in  the  clan  wars 
of  the  Highlands.  At  Bannachra  Castle  the  Mac- 
gregors  and  Macfarlanes  besieged  and  killed  Sir 
Humphrey  Colquhoun  of  Luss  in  1592.  About  ten 
years  later  the  Macgregors,  who  were  a  "  broken " 
clan,  with  no  recognized  head  or  chief,  killed  a  royal 
deerkeeper  named  Drummond,  and  asking  at  his 
sister's  house  for  food,  they  placed  the  murdered 
man's  head  on  the  table  with  the  mouth  stuffed  with 
bread  and  cheese  where  she  would  see  it  on  entering 
the  room. 

Other  acts  of  savagery  following  quickly  upon  this, 
a  strong  effort  to  break  the  strength  of  the  Mac- 
gregors was  determined  upon.  More  than  a  hundred 
widoAvs  of  members  of  the  Clan  Colquhoun  massa- 
cred by  the  Macgregors  in  Glenfruin  (a  valley  near 
the  head  of  the  Gare  Loch),  rode  through  the  streets 
of  Stirling,  each  one  dressed  in  weeds,  mounted  upon 
a  white  palfrey  and  bearing  aloft  upon  a  spear  her 
husband's  blood-stained  shirt. 

The  aim  of  this  demonstration  was  to  arouse  the 
government  of  James  VI.  to  take  measures  against 
the  Macgregors,  and  accordingly  within  a  month  the 
name  of  Macgregor  was  abolished  by  Act  of  Privy 
Council,  and  it  was  decreed  that  any  one  calling  him- 


Ben  Lomond  and  Loch  Lomond, 
from  Inchtavannach 


STIRLING. 


121 


self  Gregor  or  Macgregor  must  take  another  surname 
under  pain  of  death. 

All  those  in  any  way  connected  with  the  Glenfruin 
affair  were  prohibited  from  carrying  any  weapon  other 
than  a  pointless  knife  wherewith  to  cut  up  food.  In 
1613  and  again  four  years  later  this  Act  was  repeated, 
and  members  of  the  clan  were  forbidden  to  assemble 
in  numbers  exceeding  four.  The  execution  of  these 
orders  was  entrusted  mainly  to  the  Campbells,  under 
the  Earl  of  Argyll  in  the  West  and  to  the  Earl  of 
Atholl  in  the  Central  Highlands,  it  being  the  policy 
of  Government  to  utilize  the  feuds  and  jealousies 
existing  between  the  clans  for  the  mutual  suppression 
of  disorders  among  them.  Within  a  year  therefore 
Allaster  Macgregor  of  Glenstrae,  who  had  com- 
manded at  Glenfruin,  and  about  thirty-five  of  the  clan 
had  been  taken  and  hanged.  With  the  Restoration, 
and  the  temporary  downfall  of  the  house  of  Argyll 
in  the  reigns  of  Charles  II.  and  James  II.,  the  Acts 
against  the  Clan  Macgregor  were  repealed,  but  they 
were  re-enacted  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  though 
not  rigidly  enforced.  Finally,  about  a  hundred  years 
ago,  by  an  Act  of  the  British  Parliament,  the  penal 
statutes  against  the  clan  were  forever  abolished,  and 
eight  hundred  and  twenty-six  Macgregors,  capable  of 
bearing  arms,  acknowledged  John  Murray  of  Lanrick, 
descendant  of  the  ancient  lairds,  chiefs  of  Macgregor, 
to  be  their  lawful  chief.1  Murray  reassumed  the 
1  See  Introduction  to  Rob  Roy. 


122     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


ancient  name,  and  was  created  a  Baronet  by  the  King 
as  Sir  John  Murray  Macgregor. 

It  was  during  the  period  when  the  use  of  the  sur- 
name was  prohibited  that  the  most  famous  member  of 
the  clan  flourished.  Robert  Campbell  (Macgregor), 
commonly  called  Rob  Roy  or  Robert  the  Red,  was 
brought  up  on  a  farm  in  Balquhidder  on  the  property 
of  the  Duke  of  Atholl,  near  the  head  of  Loch  Earn. 
He  was  born  about  the  year  1671,  and  at  some  time 
acquired  rights  to  Craig  Royston,  on  the  east  shore  of 
Loch  Lomond.  His  mother  was  a  Campbell,  and  as 
the  name  of  Macgregor  was  proscribed,  Rob  Roy  as- 
sumed his  mother's  name.  Previous  to  the  year  1712 
he  was  occupied  in  a  perfectly  legitimate  manner  as  a 
thriving  cattle  trader  with  the  lowlanders  of  the  Bor- 
ders, and  he  had  the  confidence  and  protection  of  the 
Duke  of  Montrose.  By  purchase  from  his  nephew, 
he  acquired  rights  of  property  on  Glengyle  and 
Inversnaid,  hence  his  designation  "of  Inversnaid." 
A  series  of  unfortunate  ventures,  however,  put  an  end 
to  this  period  of  prosperity,  and  Rob  Roy  found  him- 
self indebted  in  large  sums  to  Montrose  and  others. 
Proceedings  were  taken  against  him,  in  the  course  of 
which  his  wife  and  children  were  evicted  from  their 
home  in  midwinter.  "  Rob  Roy's  Lament "  is  said  to 
have  been  composed  by  his  wife  on  that  occasion. 
Now  began  the  period  of  outlawry  with  which  his 
name  is  associated.  Hunted,  proscribed  and  shut  out 
from  every  lawful  calling,  Rob  Roy,  who  conceived 


STIRLING. 


123 


the  action  of  Montrose  to  have  been  unjust  and  tyr- 
annical, attached  himself  to  the  rival  house  of  Argyll, 
whose  name  he  had  assumed ;  for  between  the  Camp- 
bells (Argyll)  and  the  Grahams  (Montrose)  there  was 
always  deadly  enmity.  With  a  band  of  disaffected 
persons,  belonging  mainly  to  his  own  clan,  Rob  Roy 
set  up  as  a  freebooter  and  a  levier  of  blackmail.1 
"  His  stature,"  writes  Sir  Walter  Scott,  "  was  not  of 
the  tallest,  but  his  person  was  uncommonly  strong  and 
compact.  The  greatest  peculiarities  of  his  frame  were 
the  breadth  of  his  shoulders  and  the  great  and  almost 
disproportioned  length  of  his  arms,  so  remarkable 
indeed  that  it  was  said  he  could,  without  stooping,  tie 
the  garters  of  his  Highland  hose,  which  are  placed 
two  inches  below  the  knee.  His  countenance  was 
open,  manly,  stern  at  periods  of  danger,  but  frank 
and  cheerful  in  his  hours  of  festivity.  His  hair  was 
dark  red,  thick  and  frizzled,  and  curled  short  around 
the  face.  .  .  .  Though  a  descendant  of  the  blood- 
thirsty Ciar  Mohr,2  he  inherited  none  of  his  ancestor's 

1  "  Blackmail "  was  a  voluntary  (?)  tax  or  insurance  levied  by  a 
Highland  freebooter,  who  undertook  to  protect  the  cattle  and  prop- 
erty of  the  payers  from  all  depredation  of  marauders.  It  was 
strictly  against  the  law,  but  on  the  "  Highland  line "  was  tacitly 
recognized  and  practiced.  See  Scott's  Rob  Roy,  chap.  26.  "  Mail  " 
is  old  Scots  word  for  "  rent "  or  "  tribute  " — e.  g.,  a  mailin  is  still  a 
rented  farm.  "  Black"  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  an  old  Teutonic 
word,  "  blaken,"  to  plunder. 

2  Ciar  Moar — the  great  mouse-colored  man — was  a  foster-brother  of 
Allaster  Macgregor,  who  placed  under  his  care  a  party  of  young 
clerical  students  who  came  to  watch  the  fight  of  Glenfruin.  In- 


124     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


ferocity.  On  the  contrary,  Rob  Roy  avoided  every 
appearance  of  cruelty,  and  it  is  not  averred  that  he 
was  ever  the  means  of  unnecessary  bloodshed  or  the 
actor  in  any  deed  which  could  lead  the  way  to  it. 
.  .  .  Like  Robin  Hood  of  England,  he  was  a  kind 
and  gentle  robber,  and  while  he  took  from  the  rich, 
was  liberal  in  relieving  the  poor.  .  .  .  All  whom  I 
have  conversed  with,  and  I  have  in  my  youth  seen 
some  who  knew  Rob  Roy  personally,  gave  him  the 
character  of  a  benevolent  and  humane  man  '  in  his 
way/ "l 

Rob  Roy  played  a  wavering  part  in  the  Jacobite 
Rising  of  1715,  being  divided  between  his  desire  to 
overturn  the  existing  state  of  things  and  his  sense  of 
obligation  to  the  house  of  Argyll.  In  the  course  of 
his  adventurous  life  he  was  several  times  captured,  but 
always  managed  to  escape.  When  an  elderly  man 
his  clan  and  the  Stewarts  of  Appin  had  a  dispute, 
which  having  been  amicably  adjusted,  Rob  Roy,  to 
make  everything  pleasant,  invited  any  gentleman  of 
the  Stewarts  who  might  care  to  do  so  "  to  exchange  a 
few  blows  with  him  for  the  honor  of  their  respective 
clans."  Alaster  Stewart  of  Invernahyle  accepted  the 
challenge,  and  a  famous  duel  was  fought  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  two  assembled  clans  near  the  farm  of 
Invernenty  in  the  Braes  of  Balquhidder.  Stewart  hav- 

stead  of  guarding  them,  however,  he  murdered  them  all,  and  a 
stone  on  the  spot  is  called  Leck-a-M hinisteir — the  clerk's  flagstone. 
The  blood  of  the  victims  is  said  still  to  stain  it. 
1  Introduction  to  Rob  Roy,  Sir  Walter  Scott. 


STIKLING. 


125 


ing  drawn  blood,  the  affair  ended  to  every  one's  satis- 
faction. Sir  Walter  Scott  gives  the  following  tradi- 
tion concerning  the  manner  of  Rob  Hoy's  death  (the 
date  of  which  is  not  certainly  known).  When  very 
near  his  end  a  certain  Maclaren,  who  had  been  an 
enemy,  came  to  see  him.  " '  Raise  me  from  my  bed/ 
said  he ;  '  throw  my  plaid  around  me  and  bring  me  my 
claymore,  dirk  and  pistols.  It  shall  never  be  said 
that  a  foeman  saw  Rob  Roy  Macgregor  defenceless 
and  unarmed.'  .  .  .  Rob  Roy  maintained  a  cold, 
haughty  civility  during  their  short  conference,  and  so 
soon  as  he  had  left  the  house,  'Now,'  he  said,  'all  is 
over ;  let  the  piper  play  Ha  til  mi  tulidh '  (We  return 
no  more) ;  and  he  is  said  to  have  expired  before  the 
dirge  was  finished. 

"  This  singular  man  died  in  bed  in  his  own  house, 
in  the  parish  of  Balquhidder.  He  was  buried  in  the 
churchyard  of  the  same  parish,  where  his  tombstone 
is  only  distinguished  by  a  rude  attempt  at  the  figure 
of  a  broadsword." 

Rob  Roy  left  five  sons,  who  played  conspicuous  and 
not  very  creditable  parts.  The  best  known  are  Robin 
Oig,  the  youngest,  and  James  Mohr,  the  eldest.  After 
the  father's  death  Robin  Oig  shot  the  Maclaren  who 
had  visited  the  dying  Macgregor.  He  absconded,  but 
two  of  his  brothers  were  tried  as  accessories  to  the 
crime,  but  were  acquitted.  Robin  enlisted  in  the  Black 
Watch  and  fought  for  King  George  at  Fontenoy, 
where  he  was  wounded  and  taken  prisoner.  Eight 


126      SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

years  later  he  and  his  brothers  abducted  an  heiress, 
Jane  Kay,  of  Edenbellie,  whom  Robin  Oig  forcibly 
married,  and  for  this  he  was  hanged,  although  many 
thought  at  the  time  that  Mrs.  Kay  was  a  willing 
prisoner.  Robin  figures  in  one  of  the  chapters  of 
Stevenson's  Kidnapped,  where  he  is  depicted  as  a 
masterly  performer  on  the  bagpipes. 

James  Mohr,  who  called  himself  Drummond  out 
of  compliment  to  the  Duke  of  Perth,  followed  that 
chief  in  the  Jacobite  insurrection  of  1745  and  was 
wounded  at  the  Battle  of  Prestonpans.  After  the 
Rising  was  over  he  became  a  Government  spy  and 
played  an  infamous  part.  By  some  he  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  original  "  Pickle  the  Spy,"  though  Mr. 
Andrew  Lang  will  have  none  of  this.  One  thing  is 
certain,  he  was  employed  to  trepan  Alan  Breck  Stew- 
art, and  Stevenson  has  not  exaggerated  his  treach- 
ery in  his  romance  David  Balfour,  of  which  he  makes 
James  Mohr  the  villain. 

When  the  name  of  Macgregor  was  forbidden  a 
member  of  Rob  Roy's  family  took  the  name  of 
Gregory,  which  for  five  generations  was  famous  in 
the  world  of  science  and  medicine.  The  first  of  these 
Macgregors  was  James  Gregory,  who  studied  in 
Padua  and  became  professor  of  mathematics  in  St. 
Andrews  and  afterwards  in  Edinburgh.  He  was  the 
inventor  of  the  reflecting  telescope  known  as  the 
"Gregorian,"  which  is  still  used.  To  his  son, 
who  was  professor  of  medicine  at  Aberdeen,  there 


STIRLING. 


127 


happened  a  whimsical  incident  in  that  university 
city.  Rob  Roy  was  sent  to  Aberdeenshire  some 
time  in  the  early  seventies  to  raise  men  in  the 
Jacobite  interest.  While  passing  through  Aber- 
deen he  met  his  cousin,  the  professor,  who  treated 
him  hospitably.  Rob  was  greatly  struck  with  the 
doctor's  son  James,  a  lively,  high-spirited  boy.  After 
pondering  how  he  might  requite  the  kindness  shown 
him  by  his  kinsman,  he  made  the  following  offer: 
"  You  are  ruining  the  boy,"  he  said,  "  with  this  useless 
bookish  learning;  give  him  to  me  and  I  will  make  a 
man  of  him."  The  father  pleaded  the  incongruity  of 
his  professional  surroundings,  but  Rob  said  he  could 
get  over  that  difficulty  by  carrying  the  boy  off  with  a 
fictitious  show  of  violence.  In  despair  the  father 
pointed  out  that  the  boy's  extreme  youth  and  delicacy 
of  health  unfitted  him  to  stand  the  rigors  of  a  High- 
land life  and  the  matter  was  postponed.  The  boy 
who  thus  escaped  a  freebooter's  life  became  like  his 
father  a  medical  professor  in  Aberdeen.  Another 
member  of  the  family  in  the  second  generation,  David 
Gregory,  became  professor  of  astronomy  at  Oxford, 
and  was  the  life-long  friend  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton. 

The  Gregory  of  the  fourth  generation  (1753-1821) 
was  professor  of  medicine  in  Edinburgh  University,1 
and  is  still  remembered  as  the  prescriber  of  "Greg- 
ory's stomachic  powders,"  which  even  now  is  the  most 

1  It  is  this  Dr.  Gregory  whom  R.  L.  Stevenson  introduces  in 
Chapter  III.  of  his  last  unfinished  romance,  Weir  of  Hermiston. 


128     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOM ANTIC. 


widely  used  family  medicine  in  the  British  Isles. 
He  was  a  friend  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's,  and  it  was  from 
him  that  Scott  learned  the  anecdote  of  his  grand- 
father's intercourse  with  Rob  Roy.  The  fifth  and 
last  member  of  this  scientific  Macgregor  dynasty  was 
William  Gregory,  professor  of  chemistry  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Edinburgh,  where  he  died  in  1858  and  was 
succeeded  in  his  chair  by  the  late  Lord  Playfair. 

The  principal  part  of  the  Rob  Roy  country  lies  in 
the  Highland  district  of  Stirlingshire,1  that  narrow 
strip  of  the  county  that,  running  up  along  the  eastern 
shore  of  Loch  Lomond,  includes  Ben  Lomond  and 
the  lesser  heights  of  Ben  Uird  and  Ben  Bhreach. 
Stirlingshire  is  geographically  the  heart  of  Scottish 
history  j  no  less  than  six  great  battles,  each  in  its  way 
decisive,  were  fought  in  the  county,  and  its  royal  fort- 
ress was  not  only  a  favorite  residence  of  the  Stewarts — 
and  hence  connected  with  many  interesting  events — 
but  as  the  key  to  the  North,  it  held  a  quite  unique 
place  among  the  strongholds  of  the  kingdom.  It  com- 
manded the  passage  of  the  Forth,  and  "  Forth  bridles 
the  wild  Highlandman,"  says  the  old  Scots  proverb. 

It  is  not  until  the  twelfth  century  however  that 
Stirling  Castle  comes  into  notice.  It  was  a  royal 
burgh  before  David  I.'s  time,  and  both  Alexander  I. 
and  William  the  Lion  died  there.    In  1297  (11th 

1  Balquhidder  is  however  in  Perthshire.  The  old  Macgregor  ter- 
ritory included  property  in  both  counties  between  Loch  Lomond 
and  Loch  Earn. 


Rob  Roy's  Grave 


STIRLING. 


129 


of  September)  Wallace,  taking  advantage  of  the 
great  natural  strength  of  the  pass  at  Stirling  Bridge 
(a  very  early  bridge  across  the  Forth),  below  the 
Castle,  met  and  defeated  the  English  under  Surrey 
and  Cressingham.  The  Scottish  leader,  having  sta- 
tioned his  men  on  the  Abbey  Craig,  a  steep  cliff  north 
of  the  river,  allowed  a  large  number  of  the  enemy  to 
cross  without  offering  a  blow.  Then  suddenly  sending 
a  company  of  spearmen  to  take  the  head  of  the  bridge 
he  fell  upon  and  nearly  annihilated  the  advanced  de- 
tachment of  the  enemy,  throwing  the  remainder  into 
wild  panic  and  confusion.  Many  were  drowned  in 
the  River  Forth,  many  more  were  slaughtered,  and 
the  moral  effect  of  the  victory  over  a  hitherto  vic- 
torious and  overbearing  foe  was  enormous. 

"  Its  immediate  influence,"  writes  Hill  Burton, 
"  was  so  powerful  as  to  clear  the  country  of  the  in- 
vaders. All  the  strongholds  were  recovered  by  the 
Scots."  On  the  spot  so  happily  chosen  by  Wallace 
stands  the  monument  lately  erected  to  his  memory. 

Two  years  later,  Stirling  being  again  in  the  hands 
of  the  English,  the  Scots  besieged  and  took  it.  This 
is  called  the  first  siege.  What  is  spoken  of  as  the 
second  siege  of  Stirling  is  the  one  conducted  by  Ed- 
ward I.  in  person,  in  the  early  summer  of  1304,  when 
a  small  garrison  under  Sir  William  Oliphant  held  out  for 
over  three  months  against  the  entire  English  army.  It 
was  the  last  stronghold  held  by  the  Scots  at  that  time, 
and  it  must  have  been  with  bursting  hearts  that  the 
Vol.  II.— 9 


130     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

brave  little  company,  reduced  to  but  a  hundred  and 
forty  men,  driven  by  threatened  starvation,  marched 
out  on  the  eve  of  the  Feast  of  St.  James  the  Apostle 
and  made  their  submission,  "in  a  valley  through 
which  passed  a  road  leading  to  a  gate  in  the  Castle  of 
Stirling." 

It  was  to  relieve  Stirling,  then  held  by  the  Eng- 
lish, that  the  Battle  of  Bannockburn  was  fought,  after 
which  it  surrendered  to  King  Robert.  It  was  cap- 
tured by  the  English  in  the  reign  of  his  son,  but  was 
finally  ceded  to  the  Scots  in  1339. 

Twenty  years  later  Sir  Robert  Erskine  was  made 
hereditary  Governor,  an  office  held  in  his  family  till 
the  forfeiture  of  his  descendant,  the  Earl  of  Mar,  for 
his  part  in  the  '15. 

The  Castle  that  stood  the  siege  by  Edward  I.  has 
goue,  though  the  foundations  probably  still  exist  below 
the  present  walls,  none  of  which  are  thought  to  ante- 
date the  time  of  James  III.  It  was  to  Stirling  Castle 
that  James  II.  invited  the  Earl  of  Douglas  to  the 
confereuce  that  ended  in  the  murder  of  the  Earl. 

The  room  in  which  this  took  place  does  not  now 
exist.  James  II.  and  James  III.  were  both  born  at 
Stirling.  With  the  latter  it  was  especially  a  favorite 
place  of  residence,  and  to  him  are  probably  due  some 
of  the  existing  buildings.  The  Parliament  House, 
altered  into  a  barrack,  on  the  east  of  the  quadrangle, 
and  the  outer  gateway,  walls  and  towers  are  attributed 
to  him,  while  a  chapel  he  built  on  the  north  side  of 


STIRLING. 


131 


the  quadrangle  was  pulled  down  by  James  VI.,  who 
built  the  present  one  in  its  place  (it  is  now  a  store- 
house) for  the  baptism  of  his  son,  Prince  Henry,  in 
1594.  The  Palace  was  put  up  by  James  V.  (com- 
pleted probably  by  Mary  of  Guise),  who  was  much  at 
Stirling.  When  in  his  youth  he  broke  loose  from 
the  reasserted  power  of  the  Douglases,  it  was  there  he 
established  himself.  The  incognito  by  which  he  was 
known,  the  "  Gudeman  of  Ballengeich,"  refers  to  the 
name  of  a  mountain-pass  close  by.  "  The  exterior  of 
the  Palace  is  of  very  fantastic  design,  but  it  is  inter- 
esting as  being  probably  the  earliest  example  of  the 
introduction  of  the  Renaissance  style  into  Scotland. 
.  .  .  Here  .  .  .  there  are  clear  evidences  of  the  work 
of  Frenchmen,  brought  over  by  James  V.  after  his 
sojourn  and  marriage  in  France."  Thither,  after  the 
King's  death,  came  his  widow,  Mary  of  Guise,  with  the 
infant  Queen  Mary,  the  latter  being  crowned  (when 
nine  months  old)  in  the  chapel  of  Stirling  Castle,  Sep- 
tember 9,  1543.  James  VI.  was  baptized  in  the  same 
chapel,  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  Rome; 
consequently  the  Countess  of  Argyll,  who  acted  as 
proxy  for  his  godmother,  Queen  Elizabeth,  was  obliged 
to  make  public  repentance  in  the  same  place  for  "  as- 
sisting at  the  prince's  baptism,  performed  in  a  papisti- 
cal manner."  Seven  months  later  he  was  crowned  in 
the  "  Parish  Kirk  of  Stirling  f  the  Earl  of  Morton, 
as  sponsor,  took  the  oath.  The  helpless  little  head 
was  held  within  the  great  crown  and  the  tiny  fist  laid 


132     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


against  the  sword  and  sceptre.  Although  the  Reform- 
ers made  some  objections  to  the  ceremonial  of  anoint- 
ing, this  too  was  duly  performed  by  Adam  Bothwell, 
Bishop  of  Orkney  (he  who  had  married  the  King's 
mother  to  Bothwell).  John  Knox  is  on  record  as 
being  party  to  the  proceedings,  and  he  preached  in 
Stirling  on  the  occasion.  The  year  1594  saw  the  ex- 
traordinarily pompous  baptism  in  the  newly-built 
Chapel  Royal  of  Prince  Henry,  the  eldest  son  of 
James  VI.,  who,  by  dying  in  boyhood,  escaped  the 
disasters  that  overtook  his  house. 

Prince  Charles  Edward,  marching  from  Glasgow  on 
January  3,  1746,  reached  Stirling  on  the  4th,  and 
taking  up  his  residence  at  Bannockburn  House,  four 
miles  to  the  south,  he  besieged  the  town  of  Stirling, 
which  capitulated  on  the  8th.  General  Blakeney, 
commanding  the  garrison,  retired  however  to  the 
Castle,  and  although  besieged  until  February  1,  the 
Castle  was  not  taken.  While  waiting  here  the  Prince 
won  the  Battle  of  Falkirk  (January  17),  but  on  the 
approach  of  the  Government  army,  commanded  by 
the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  on  the  advice  of  the  High- 
land Chiefs,  he  evacuated  Stirling  and  retreated  be- 
yond the  Forth. 

The  little  valley  in  which  the  Scottish  garrison  had 
submitted  to  Edward  L,  now  used  in  part  as  a  ceme- 
tery, was  formerly  devoted  to  sports — tournaments 
and  such  like — the  knoll  called  the  Ladies'  Rock 
being  traditionally  held  to  be  the  spot  where  the 


STIRLING. 


133 


ladies  of  the  court  were  wont  to  assemble  to  witness 
these  trials  of  skill. 

The  position  of  Stirling  Castle,  on  the  abrupt, 
rocky  termination  of  an  elevated  ridge,  strongly  sug- 
gests the  Castle  of  Edinburgh.  From  the  walls  east- 
ward the  view  embraces  the  perfectly  level  plain 
through  which  the  Forth  twists  and  coils  its  way  to 
the  sea ;  while  towards  the  north  this  same  plain  is 
bounded  by  broken  heights — blue  hills  which,  mount- 
ing higher  and  higher  in  the  distance,  stretch  away 
into  those  ever  romantically  beautiful  regions,  the 
Highlands  of  Scotland.  Like  Edinburgh,  Stirling 
has  its  Castle  Hill,  where  may  still  be  seen  traces  of 
the  days  of  its  splendor. 

The  building  that  goes  by  the  name  of  Argyll's 
Lodging,  now  a  military  hospital,  is  accounted  "prob- 
ably the  finest  specimen  of  an  old-town  residence 
remaining  in  Scotland."  It  is  quite  close  to  the 
Castle,  and  is  built  around  three  sides  of  a  courtyard, 
with  an  arched  gateway  and  wall  on  the  side  of  the 
street.  Sir  William  Alexander  of  Menstrie,  Earl  of 
Stirling,  the  projector  of  the  Nova  Scotia  settlement, 
built  it  in  1632,  and  on  his  death  the  Argylls  bought 
and  finished  it. 

There  are  a  number  of  old  (seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  century)  houses  still  standing  on  Broad 
Street.    One  bears  the  cautious  motto : 

"  Heir  I  forbeare  my  name  or  armes  to  fix, 
Least  I  or  myne  showld  sell  these  stones  and  sticks." 


134     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

And  there  is  besides  the  striking  facade  called  Mar's 
Wark,  supposed  to  be  all  that  remains  of  a  town  resi- 
dence put  up  by  the  Earl  of  Mar  in  the  last  half  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  one  of  the  richest  and  best  of 
the  existing  specimens  of  domestic  architecture  of  that 
date.  At  the  end  of  Broad  Street  is  the  Old  Town 
House,  with  a  bell  and  clock-tower.  The  open  space 
before  it  was  used  for  public  executions,  and  it  was 
there  that  Archbishop  Hamilton  was  hanged  in  1571. 
All  that  remains  of  the  "  Mercat "  Cross  that  an- 
ciently stood  here  (removed  in  1792)  is  the  unicorn 
that  surmounts  the  present  cross,  set  up  a  few  years 
ago.  West  of  the  Old  Town  Hall  is  the  interesting 
and  well-preserved  Parish  Church.  The  oldest  part — 
that  is  the  nave — dates  from  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  or  even  earlier.  The  eastern  part 
or  choir  was  built  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  was  added  to  by  Archbishop  James 
Beaton.  The  very  picturesque  tower  was  also  built 
at  two  periods;  the  lower  part  is  probably  of  the 
same  date  as  the  nave.  The  church  was  "  purged  " 
in  1559,  and  it  was  there  that  the  coronation  of 
James  II.,  alluded  to  above,  took  place,  when  Knox 
preached.  In  1665  a  dividing  wall  was  built,  trans- 
forming the  choir  into  the  East  Church  and  the  nave 
into  the  West  Church.  The  original  west  entrance 
has  been  built  up,  and  the  two  churches  are  entered 
from  a  disfiguring  porch  in  the  middle  of  the  south 
side.     In  the  course  of  numerous  alterations,  con- 


Stirling:  Castle  from  Ladies'  Rock 


STIKLING. 


135 


ducted  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
the  chamber  called  the  King's  Room,  which  was  in 
the  upper  part  of  the  crossing  between  the  nave  and 
choir,  was  removed.  It  was  reached  by  a  private 
stair  and  commanded  a  view  of  the  interior  of  the 
church.  A  round  arch  that  sprang  from  the  two 
piers  at  the  east  end  of  the  nave  was  removed  at  the 
same  time,  and  all  the  stone  work  of  the  interior 
redressed.  The  chapel  called  Queen  Margaret's  has 
lately  been  demolished ;  but  another,  dedicated  to  St. 
Andrew  by  Duncan  Forrester  of  Garden  in  the  fif- 
teenth century,  is  still  entire.  It  stands  on  the  north 
side  of  the  nave,  and  has  only  lately  been  thrown 
open  to  the  public. 

Directly  to  the  south  of  Stirling  is  Scotland's  most 
glorious  field  of  Bannockburn.  Towards  the  close  of 
the  year  1313  Stirling  Castle  lay  closely  besieged  by 
Edward  Bruce,  who  made  a  bargain  with  its  gov- 
ernor, Moubray,  that  if  not  relieved  by  St.  John's 
Day — June  24  of  the  following  year — it  should  be 
surrendered  to  the  Scots.  Therefore  England  aroused 
herself  to  a  supreme  effort;  every  resource  was 
strained  to  the  utmost,  and  a  mighty  host — a  hun- 
dred thousand  is  the  number  given — led  by  Edward 
II.  in  person,  poured  through  the  Border  Country  and 
in  June,  1314,  encamped  to  the  north  of  Tor  wood. 

Robert  Bruce  had  in  the  meantime  been  actively 
occupied  in  preparing  his  defences,  and  after  some 
preliminary  skirmishing  and  feats  of  arms,  the  battle 


136     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

so  memorable  for  Scotland  was  fought  on  June  24, 
the  English  advancing  to  the  attack  at  daybreak. 
Bruce' s  strong  position  and  superior  generalship  won 
the  day,  and  there  ensued  one  of  those  inexplicable 
scenes  of  panic  and  terror,  when  a  vastly  superior 
force  of  trained  men  breaks  and  flees,  as  though  life 
at  all  costs  were  the  one  thing  to  be  considered. 

Edward  II.  fled  from  the  field  and  got  refuge  at 
Dunbar,  from  whence  he  went  by  boat  to  Berwick. 
He  looked  upon  his  escape  as  miraculous,  and  only 
caused  by  the  direct  interposition  of  the  Virgin  whom 
he  invoked  in  his  flight.  To  her  he  vowed  that  he 
would  in  gratitude  build  a  house  for  poor  Carmelites, 
and  this  vow  he  fulfilled  by  founding  Oriel  College, 
Oxford,  which  thus  remains  to-day  a  monument  of 
Bannockburn  and  the  emancipation  of  Scotland. 

The  Battle  of  Bannockburn  has  been  fully  described 
by  many  writers  from  the  details  carefully  preserved 
by  Barbour,  but  there  is  one  little  gleam  of  light 
seldom  mentioned  which  shows  how  little  there  is  new 
under  the  sun — not  even  the  special  war  correspon- 
dent. The  ancient  chronicle  tells :  "  Amongest  the 
Englishe  captives  was  one  Bastone,  a  Carmelite  friar, 
a  poete,  as  thesse  days  went,  quhom  K.  Eduard  had 
brought  with  him  to  sing  hes  triumphes  (for  in  con- 
ceit with  hes  hudge  armey,  he  had  deuored  all  Scot- 
land, till  God  confoundit  him  in  the  midest  of  his 
gratest  confidence) ;  this  poete  fell  in  K.  Robert's  auen 
hands,  and  was  hes  auen  prissoner,  with  quhom  he 


STIKLING. 


137 


stayed  a  longe  quhyle,  and  wrett  in  ryme  the  passages 
of  that  day,  and  therafter  was  noblie  reuarded  and 
dismissed."  1  This  special  correspondent's  report  has 
not  come  down  to  us,  but  it  may  be  that  Barbour's 
description  of  the  battle  was  learned  from  Friar  Bas- 
tone's  record. 

A  striking  feature  of  the  battle  was  the  enormous 
number  of  prisoners  and  quantity  of  rich  booty  taken 
by  the  Scots.  The  "  Borestone,"  a  granite  boulder  on 
a  piece  of  rising  ground  southwest  of  St.  Ninians,  is 
where  King  Robert  Bruce  is  supposed  to  have  erected 
his  standard.  It  is  now  enclosed  within  an  iron  railing. 
The  battle  forced  upon  Wallace  at  Falkirk  by  Edward 
Ii,  just  sixteen  years  earlier,  was  on  the  contrary  dis- 
astrous for  the  National  Party.  Wallace,  with  a 
greatly  inferior  force,  was  doing  his  best  to  avoid 
giving  battle,  hoping  to  starve  and  weary  out  the  in- 
vaders ;  but  his  retreat  was  discovered,  and  the  Eng- 
lish King  was  so  eager  to  press  his  advantage  that  he 
pushed  forward  from  Linlithgow,  sleeping  on  the  bare 
ground  and  not  even  pausing  long  enough  to  have  a 
couple  of  broken  ribs  set.  The  results  justified  his 
haste.  Wallace  at  bay  did  all  an  expert  general  could 
do,  placing  his  men  carefully  and  wisely  on  the  slope 
lying  between  the  town  of  Falkirk  and  the  Carron 
on  the  west.  Edward's  force  was  an  overpowering 
one  and  the  Scots,  such  of  them  as  escaped  alive, 
rapidly  disbanded,  leaving  the  English  complete  mas- 
1  Annates  of  Scotland,  i.,  94. 


138     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

ters  for  the  time  being.  This  was  the  first  battle  of 
Falkirk;  the  other  was  fought  on  January  17,  1746, 
when  Prince  Charles,  leaving  a  force  under  the  Duke 
of  Perth  to  conduct  the  siege  of  Stirling  Castle, 
encountered  the  Government  army  at  Falkirk  and 
defeated  it.  General  Hawley  was  being  entertained 
at  Callendar  House  by  the  (Jacobite)  Countess  of 
Kilmarnock  and  did  not  reach  the  field  till  his  men 
were  all  drawn  up  and  the  Highlanders  could  be  seen 
advancing  towards  a  hill  on  the  southwest,  near  South 
Bantaskine.  He  rushed  his  dragoons  forward  to 
seize  this  advantageous  spot,  but  the  Highlanders  got 
there  first,  while  a  heavy  rain-storm  beating  in  the 
faces  of  the  dragoons  obscured  their  vision  and  soaked 
their  guns.  The  Government  troops  were  completely 
routed  and  fell  back  on  Edinburgh.  The  site  of  this 
battle  is  on  the  heights  to  the  southwest  of  the  railway 
station  overlooking  the  town. 

In  the  quiet  Falkirk  churchyard,  hemmed  in  almost 
completely  by  the  closely  built-up  town,  are  memo- 
rials of  both  these  battles.  A  perfectly  simple  slab 
of  gray  stone  bears  the  words  :  "  Here  lies  a  Scottish 
Hero,  Sir  John  Stewart,  who  was  killed  at  the  battle 
of  Falkirk,  22  July,  1298."  Sir  John  Graham  of 
Abercorn  has  a  more  imposing  monument,  which, 
surmounted  by  a  Gothic  cupola,  stands  in  the  centre 
of  the  grounds.  These  both  fell  fighting  under  Wal- 
lace. Close  by  a  large  monument  marks  the  graves 
of  Sir  Kobert  Munro  of  Foulis  and  his  brother  Dun- 


STIRLING. 


139 


can,  both  killed  by  the  Highlanders  in  the  fight 
of  1746.  About  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Bannock- 
burn  runs  the  little  Sauchie  Burn,  where  James 
III.  met  his  insurgent  nobles  on  June  11,  1488. 
Long  before  the  fortunes  of  the  day  had  been  decided, 
the  King  had  ignominiously  fled.  He  was  about  to 
ford  the  Bannock  Burn  at  Milton,  when  a  miller's 
wife  drawing  water  at  the  stream,  was  so  startled  to 
see  a  knight  in  full  armor  come  galloping  up,  that  she 
dropped  her  pitcher.  The  horse  (a  spirited  animal, 
presented  to  the  King  that  day  by  Lord  Lyndsay,  with 
the  warning  to  sit  firm)  shied  so  violently  that  the 
King  was  thrown.  The  woman  and  her  husband  car- 
ried him  into  the  mill,  and  on  learning  who  it  was 
and  being  told  to  fetch  a  priest,  she  went  in  search  of 
one.  Meantime  some  of  the  insurgents  were  on  the 
King's  track.  Meeting  them,  the  woman  ran  up  and 
asked  if  they  had  a  priest  who  would  come  and  "  shrive 
his  Majesty."  One  of  them  said  that  he  was  a  priest 
and  would  perform  the  office,  but  on  being  taken  to 
where  the  wretched  James  lay,  suffering  probably  more 
from  terror  than  aught  else,  he  drew  his  dagger  and 
stabbed  him  over  and  over  again.  A  small  stone- 
gabled  house,  called  Beaton's  Mill,  is  said  to  mark  the 
place  where  the  King  was  murdered,  and  his  remains, 
with  those  of  his  wife,  Margaret  of  Denmark,  lie  in 
the  neighboring  ruined  Abbey  of  Cambuskenneth, 
close  to  the  Abbey  Craig,  beneath  a  monument  put  up 
by  Queen  Victoria  in  1865.    This  Abbey,  which  was 


140     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

founded  by  David  I.,  having  suffered  in  the  War  of 
Independence  and  still  more  at  the  Reformation,  is 
now  represented  only  by  some  of  the  foundation  walls 
and  a  lofty  square  tower. 

Last  among  Stirlingshire's  famous  battles  must  be 
mentioned  that  of  Kilsyth,  southwest  of  Stirling,  on 
the  southern  border  of  the  county.  Here  on  the  1 5th 
of  August,  1645,  Montrose,  with  a  greatly  inferior 
force  of  Highlanders,  defeated  with  extraordinary 
loss  to  the  enemy,  the  Covenanters  under  Baillie  and 
Argyll.  The  weather  being  excessively  warm,  Mon- 
trose made  his  men  cast  off  their  upper  garments,  and 
this  has  given  rise  to  a  tradition  that  the  Highlanders 
fought  the  battle  naked.  He  had  chosen  the  site 
carefully,  and  placed  his  men  to  the  best  advantage. 
Their  first  wild  onset  threw  the  enemy  into  confusion, 
and  the  battle  was  won  almost  without  loss  of  life  to 
the  victors. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


CLACKMANAN,  KINROSS,  FIFE. 

Clackmanan  is  the  smallest  county  in  Scotland, 
nestling  between  Stirling  and  Fife  on  the  northern 
side  of  the  Forth  where  the  waterway  becomes  navi- 
gable. 

At  Alloa,  Clackmanan's  chief  town,  there  is  a 
fourteenth  century  tower  of  the  Erskines,  later  Earls 
of  Mar.  This  tower,  enlarged  into  a  more  commodi- 
ous dwelling,  became  associated  with  the  childhood  of 
Queen  Mary,  James  VI.  and  Prince  Henry ;  but  un- 
fortunately the  later  and  less  massive  parts,  together 
with  all  the  furnishings  and  many  interesting  relics, 
were  destroyed  by  fire  in  1800. 

Overlooking  the  town  of  Clackmanan  is  another 
ancient  tower,  once  belonging  to  the  demesne  granted 
by  David  II.  in  1359  to  a  branch  of  the  Bruces.  A 
lineal  descendant  of  this  family  was  still  living  in 
Clackmanan  when  Burns  and  Mr.  Adair  were  there 
in  1787. 

"  This  venerable  dame,"  writes  Mr.  Adair,  "  with 
characteristic  dignity,  informed  me  on  my  observing 
that  I  believed  she  was  descended  from  the  family  of 
Robert  Bruce,  that  Robert  Bruce  was  sprung  from  her 

141 


142     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

family.  .  .  .  She  was  in  possession  of  the  hero's  hel- 
met and  two-handed  sword,  with  which  she  conferred 
on  Burns  and  myself  the  honor  of  knighthood,  re- 
marking that  she  had  a  better  right  to  confer  that  title 
than  some  people." 

The  old  lady  was  in  fact  an  ardent  Jacobite,  and  on 
the  same  occasion  gave  as  a  toast,  Hooi  uncos  (Away 
with  the  strangers),  the  warning  cry  used  by  shep- 
herds to  direct  the  movements  of  their  dogs. 

On  the  extreme  eastern  edge  of  Clackmananshire, 
beyond  Dollar,  on  a  lofty  spur  of  the  Ochil  Hills, 
stands  Castle  Campbell,  an  ancient  fortalice  that  came 
to.  the  Argylls  in  the  fifteenth  century.  It  is  curious 
to  find  the  first  Earl  of  Argyll  going  to  the  pains  of 
getting  an  Act  of  Parliament  to  change  its  ancient 
name  of  Castle  Gloom,  which  he  disliked,  to  its  pres- 
ent one.  The  building  was  burned  by  Montrose  in 
1645. 

The  narrow  chasm-like  valley  of  the  Devon  partly 
divides  Clackmanan  from  Kinross.  Its  wildest  and 
most  picturesque  points  are  at  Rumbling  Bridge  and 
Caldron  Linn,  visited  by  Burns  and  Adair  and  the 
Hamilton  ladies  of  Harviestoun,  who  were  much  cha- 
grined at  Burns' s  apparent  indifference  to  the  wild 
beauty  of  the  noted  Devon  scenery,  while  Mr.  Adair 
even  went  so  far  as  to  "  doubt  if  he  had  much  taste 
for  the  picturesque." 

Seven  or  eight  miles  further  east  in  Kinrosshire 
lies  the  famed  Lochleven,  two  of  whose  seven  islands 


KINROSS. 


143 


have  histories  of  their  own.  On  the  largest  are  the 
ruins  of  the  Culdee  Priory  of  the  eighth  century 
saint,  Serf  or  Servanus.  It  was  given  to  the  canons 
regular  of  St.  Andrews  in  1144,  and  there  in  the 
early  part  of  the  twelfth  century,  Wyntoun,  then  its 
Prior,  wrote  The  Oryginale  Cronykil  of  Scotland,  one 
of  the  foundations  of  all  works  of  Scottish  history. 

On  Castle  Island  stands  the  historic  Lochleven 
Castle,  hardly  altered  to-day  from  its  primitive  rude 
simplicity.  Little  is  known  of  it  before  the  Douglases 
came  into  possession  in  1353.  In  Queen  Mary's 
time  it  was  held  by  Sir  Robert  Douglas,  step-father 
of  James,  Earl  of  Moray,  the  Queen's  half-brother, 
and  it  was  there  that  she  was  sent  by  the  Confederate 
Lords  after  her  surrender  at  Carberry. 

It  may  be  well  here  to  recapitulate  the  leading 
events  in  the  life  of  this  unfortunate  lady,  whose 
career  as  a  Queen  ended  with  her  abdication  and  im- 
prisonment in  Lochleven  Castle. 

Born  at  Linlithgow  (14th  December,  1542)  but  six 
days  before  the  death  of  James  V.,  the  little  maid 
was  but  grudgingly  welcomed  by  her  dying  father. 
Little  could  he  think  that  in  the  twentieth  century 
every  royal  family  of  Europe,  with  two  exceptions 
(Turkey  and  Servia),  should  with  pride  trace  their 
descent  from  this  helpless  baby.1 

The  Scriptural  lamentation,  "  Woe  unto  thee  O 

1  See  "  The  Stuart  Descendants,"  by  W.  B.  Blaikie,  in  the  Genea- 
logical Magazine,  London,  May,  1900. 


144     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


land  where  thy  King  is  a  child,"  was  never  more 
fully  exemplified  than  in  the  minority  of  this  prin- 
cess.1 

Before  she  was  many  weeks  old  she  was  an  object 
of  strife.  Henry  VIII.  determined  to  have  her  as  a 
wife  for  his  son  and  heir,  Edward  VI.,  and  a  treaty  of 
marriage  was  made  when  she  was  but  seven  months 
old.  At  this  time  the  English  Ambassador  reports 
that  she  "  is  as  goodly  a  child  as  I  have  seen  of  her 
age  and  as  like  to  live,  with  the  grace  of  God." 
Henry's  impatience  ruined  this  scheme.  He  wished 
to  have  possession  of  the  child,  and  sent  an  army  into 
Scotland  in  1544  and  again  in  1545,  which  among 
other  mischiefs  ruined  the  famous  Border  abbeys.  He 
even  burned  Edinburgh,  but  the  little  Queen  was 
taken  to  Stirling  for  safety.  Henry  died  in  1547, 
and  the  Protector  Somerset,  to  enforce  the  treaty,  sent 
another  army,  which  completely  beat  the  Scots  at 
Pinkie  in  September,  1547.  Truly  "a  rough  kind  of 
wooing,"  as  the  Scots  declared.  The  country  was  dis- 
gusted, and  the  English  treaty  was  broken  off. 
Mary  had  till  then  spent  her  childhood  at  Linlithgow 
and  Stirling,  but  after  Pinkie  she  was  sent  to  the 
island  fastness  of  the  Priory  of  Inchmahome  in  the 

1  The  same  misfortune  of  long  minorities  dogged  Scotland  through 
the  whole  line  of  the  Jameses.  James  I.  was  eleven  years  old  when 
he  succeeded,  and  he  was  moreover  eighteen  years  a  prisoner  before 
he  took  up  the  government;  James  II.  was  six  years  old;  James 
III.  nine  years  old;  James  IV.  fifteen  years  old;  James  V.  seven- 
teen months ;  Mary  six  days  ;  James  VI.  thirteen  months. 


KINKOSS. 


145 


Lake  of  Menteith.  Here  she  remained  for  several 
months,  and  in  August,  1548,  she  being  then  nearly 
six  years  old,  sailed  from  Dumbarton  to  France. 
There  she  remained  at  the  court  of  Henri  II.,  and 
was  most  kindly  treated  by  her  uncles,  the  Guises,  and 
the  royal  family,  while  her  mother  went  back  to 
Scotland  as  Regent  in  1554.  When  fifteen  and  a 
half  years  old  she  married  the  Dauphin,  who  two 
years  later  became  King  of  France  as  Francis  II. 
In  1560  her  mother  died  at  Edinburgh  in  June,  and 
in  December  her  husband  died  in  Orleans.  Mary  was 
now  a  widow  and  only  eighteen  years  old.  Soon  France 
ceased  to  be  a  pleasant  place  for  her.  She,  claiming  to 
be  heir  of  one  hundred  and  four  Kings,  had  taunted  her 
mother-in-law,  Catherine  de  Medici,  with  being  but  a 
merchant's  daughter,  and  the  word  was  never  forgot- 
ten by  the  Queen  mother,  now  all  powerful  in  France. 
Her  own  wanted  Mary  back,  and  her  half-brother, 
Lord  James  Stewart,1  was  sent  to  fetch  her  over. 

She  landed  in  Leith  in  August,  1561,  being  then 
not  nineteen  years  old.  During  her  thirteen  years 
absence  the  Scottish  Reformation  had  come,  and  the 
country  seethed  in  trouble  and  strife  of  every  sort. 
It  required  a  stronger  hand  than  this  young  girl's  to 
rule  the  storm,  but  she  tried  to  do  her  best.  Devoted 

1  James  Stewart,  afterwards  Earl  of  Moray,  was  the  natural  son  of 
James  V.  by  Lady  Margaret  Erskine,  daughter  of  the  fifth  Earl  of 
Mar.    She  afterwards  married  Sir  Robert  Douglas  of  Lochleven, 
and  was  Mary's  jaileress  at  Lochleven  Castle. 
Vol.  II.— 10 


146     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Catholic  though  she  was,  she  freely  tolerated  her  sub- 
jects' Protestant  religion,  and  in  Holy  rood  itself  both 
mass  and  Protestant  preachings  three  days  a  week 
went  on. 

For  less  than  six  years  she  was  a  free  Queen  in 
Scotland,  but  during  that  time  her  activity  was  extra- 
ordinary. For  the  first  four  years  of  her  rule  her 
Protestant  half-brother  was  her  mentor,  and  him  she 
made  Earl  of  Moray  in  1562,  to  the  great  disgust  of 
the  Catholic  Earl  of  Huntly,  who  had  somehow 
annexed  the  Earldom.  Within  a  year  of  landing  she, 
along  with  Moray,  made  her  celebrated  progress  to 
the  North,  in  which  she  was  opposed  in  arms  by 
Huntly,  who  in  her  minority  had  acquired  almost 
royal  power  in  the  North.  Huntly  died  at  the  battle 
of  Corrichie,  and  the  power  of  the  Gordons  was 
crushed.  On  this  occasion  Mary  went  as  far  north 
as  Inverness.  She  thoroughly  enjoyed  the  rough  life 
of  the  expedition.  "  I  never  saw  her  merrier,"  wrote 
Randolph,  the  English  envoy ;  "  she  repented  nothing 
but  that  she  was  not  a  man  to  know  what  life  it  was 
to  lie  all  night  in  the  fields  or  to  walk  on  the  cause- 
way with  jack  and  knapschalle  (coat  of  mail  and 
helmet),  a  Glasgow  buckler  and  a  broadsword." 

Then  came  three  years  of  comparative  happiness 
and  constant  activity  roaming  up  and  down  the  country, 
on  one  occasion  going  as  far  south  as  Glenluce  in  Gal- 
loway. It  was  on  one  of  these  tours  in  1563  that  the 
Chastelard  incident  happened  at  Burntisland,  and  in 


KINKOSS. 


147 


another  in  the  same  year  that — at  Lochleven — -she  had 
her  one  pleasant  interview  with  John  Knox.  This 
courtesy  the  grim  Reformer  in  after  years  set  down  in 
his  history  to  guile  and  not  to  grace. 

In  1563  Both  well  was  exiled  for  participation  in  a 
plot  against  Moray.  In  July,  1565,  came  the  fateful 
marriage  with  Darnley,  which  caused  her  rupture 
with  Moray  and  the  Hamiltons  and  the  recall  of 
Bothwell  from  exile.  Moray  and  his  confederates 
went  into  rebellion,  but  Mary  was  quicker  than  they, 
and  in  the  "  Chase  About  Raid,"  as  it  was  called,  in 
1565,  she  hunted  them  at  the  head  of  her  troops 
through  Scotland  until  they  took  refuge  in  England. 

Then  followed  her  quarrels  with  Darnley,  which 
culminated  in  the  murder  of  Riccio  in  March,  1566. 
In  June  of  this  year  her  son  James  was  born  and  in 
October  she  paid  her  celebrated  visit  to  Jedburgh 
and  Hermitage  Castle,  which  had  such  direful  results. 
In  February,  1567,  her  husband  was  murdered  in 
Edinburgh.  In  April  Mary  was  seized  by  Bothwell 
and  carried  off  to  Dunbar  Castle.  In  May  she  mar- 
ried Bothwell ;  in  June  she  surrendered  to  the  Confed- 
erate Lords  at  Carberry  and  the  following  day,  June 
16,  1567,  she  was  sent  a  prisoner  to  Lochleven,  where 
she  abdicated  on  July  24,  being  then,  when  all  was 
over,  but  twenty-four  and  a  half  years  old. 

Mary  escaped  from  her  prison  on  May  2,  1568  ;  the 
battle  of  Langside  was  fought  on  May  13  and  six 
days  later  she  crossed  the  Solway  into  England  to 


148      SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


begin  her  long  captivity,  which  ended  in  the  tragedy 
of  Fotheringay  on  Febmaiy  8,  1587. 

Of  the  eleven  months  of  her  confinement  at  Loeh- 
leven  (from  June  2,  1667,  to  May  2.  1568}  the  world 
possesses  an  unfading  picture  in  the  pages  of  The 
Abbot.  \Tho  having  read  them  can  ever  forget  those 
lively  skirmishes  between  Mary  and  the  shrewish 
Lady  Douglas ;  the  interviews  with  Ruthven.  Sir 
Robert  Melville  and  Lord  Lindsay  of  the  Byres,  and 
above  all  the  romantic  escape  planned  and  executed 
by  young  Douglas?  He  who  actually  carried  out  the 
design  was  a  youth  named  Willie  Douglas,  of  whom 
nothing  is  known,  while  the  unfortunate  and  inlatu- 
ated  George  Douglas  was  reallv  hanging1  about  on  the 
mainland  ready  to  assist  the  party  to  disembark  on 
the  lands  of  Coldon,  lying  on  the  south.  This  safely 
accomplished,  they  rode  for  Xiddrie  Castle  in  Linlith- 
gowshire  (a  stone  in  a  bridge  in  deish  parish,  Kinross, 
states  that  they  passed  that  way.  where  the  first  halt 
was  made,  and  passed  from  thence  to  Hamilton. 

The  keys  thrown  into  the  lake  by  young  Douglas 
after  the  gates  had  been  locked  to  prevent  pursuit 
were,  it  is  said,  brought  up  in  1805  and  given  to 
the  Earl  of  Morton,  the  descendant  of  Sir  Robert 
Douglas.  A  bunch  purporting  to  be  the  identical 
keys  hangs  now  in  the  hall  at  Abbotsford. 

Kinross  is  almost  embedded  in  the  larger  and  more 
important  County  of  Fife,  in  whose  peaceful  and 
prosperous  history  there  is  record  of  but  one  battle 


Loch  Lcvcn  from  Kinross  shore 


KINROSS. 


149 


of  any  moment — that  fought  in  877,  when  the  vic- 
torious Danes,  approaching  from  the  Clyde,  drove 
the  men  of  Fife  before  them  across  the  whole  of 
their  own  territory  and  finally  routed  them  in  a 
pitched  battle  near  the  Firth  of  Tay.  It  is  remarked 
that  this  was  the  first  occasion  when  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Pictish  kingdom  are  termed  "Scotti."  For 
the  title  "  kingdom  of  Fife/'  often  used,  no  better 
reason  is  given  than  its  importance  in  Pictavia 
and  its  size  and  wealth.  Only  in  1891  were  the 
extreme  southwestern  parishes  of  Tulliallan  and 
Culross  taken  from  Perth  and  given  to  Fife, 
thereby  bringing  the  sleepy,  picturesque  little  town 
of  Culross  (once  a  thriving  industrial  port)  within 
the  Fifeshire  boundaries.  There  are  to  be  seen 
the  ruins  of  the  abbey  to  which  the  place  owes 
its  existence.  It  will  be  remembered  that  tradition 
assigns  the  beach  of  Culross  as  the  birthplace  of  St. 
Mungo  or  Kentigern,  and  that  it  was  there  St.  Ser- 
vanus  found  the  little  new-born  child  and  his  mother. 
The  abbey  is  probably  a  revival  by  Malcolm,  third 
Earl  of  Fife,  in  the  thirteenth  century  of  a  seventh 
century  foundation  dedicated  to  St.  Servanus.  The 
conspicuous  square  tower  once  stood  in  the  centre,  but 
the  church  on  the  west  has  disappeared,  leaving  the 
tower  at  the  western  termination  of  the  present  build- 
ing, now  used  as  a  parish  church.  There  are  remains 
of  the  monastic  buildings  and  cloister,  and  on  the 
north  side  is  seen  the  burial-place  of  the  Bruces  of 


150     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Carnoch,  with  an  elaborate  seventeenth  century  monu- 
ment. In  the  niche  are  the  recumbent  effigies  of  a 
Sir  George  Bruce  and  his  wife,  while  their  three  sons 
aud  five  daughters  kneel  decorously  below,  all  in  line. 
The  "  Palace  "  of  Culross,  a  town  mansion  of  George 
Bruce,  is  so  called  from  a  visit  paid  to  it  by  James 
VI.  in  1617.  He  was  staying  at  the  time  in  one  of 
his  favorite  residences,  the  splendid  royal  palace  of 
Dunfermline,  five  or  six  miles  away. 

There  Malcolm  Ceannmor  was  married  in  1068  to 
the  Saxon  Margaret  in  a  strong  tower,  a  fragment  of 
whose  ruins  still  stands  above  the  Pittencrieff  Glen,  and 
there  was  born  the  Princess  Matilda,  who  afterwards 
married  Henry  I.  of  England.  The  cave  to  which  the 
saint-Queen  used  to  withdraw  for  her  private  devo- 
tions is  seen  not  far  from  the  ruined  tower.  The 
royal  Palace  is  said  to  have  been  built  by  Robert 
Bruce  when  he  restored  the  Abbey  which  Malcolm 
and  his  Queen  founded  in  1072.  This  building  was 
of  great  size  and  magnificence,  but  Edward  I.,  staying 
there  in  1303,  set  fire  to  it  on  leaving.  The  whole 
was  again  burned  in  1385,  and  handsomely  restored 
probably  by  the  third  and  fourth  Jameses.  Its  pres- 
ent state  of  ruin  and  neglect  date  from  Charles  1IM 
time.  All  that  now  remains  is  an  imposing  section 
of  the  southwest  wall  overlooking  the  glen,  with  the 
"  King's  kitchen  "  at  its  east  end  and  a  vaulted  store- 
room below.  There  is  too  the  Pend  Tower  (under- 
neath which  the  high  road  passes),  where  the  Palace 


FIFE. 


151 


was  connected  with  the  Abbey.  The  latter  was  re- 
built by  David  I.  in  the  early  Norman  style,  and  sug- 
gests Durham  Cathedral,  at  that  time  but  lately  com- 
pleted. In  the  thirteenth  century  the  aisled  choir, 
transept  and  presbytery  were  added,  and  about  twenty 
years  later  {i.  e.,  1250)  Queen  Margaret  was  canonized 
and  her  body  removed  with  great  pomp  from  the  old 
church,  her  own  foundation,  where  it  had  been  placed 
immediately  after  her  death,  to  the  new  Lady  Chapel. 
The  monastic  buildings  were  burned  by  Edward  L 
in  1303,  and  their  final  ruin,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
church,  was  accomplished  by  the  Reformers  on  March 
28, 1560.  Of  the  thirteenth  century  work  the  nave  and 
fine  Norman  west  doorway  are  still  standing,  and  there 
is  a  small  portion  of  the  lower  part  of  the  Lady  Chapel 
walls  enclosing  the  tomb  of  St.  Margaret.  The  huge 
buttresses  belong  to  the  later  sixteenth  century  work. 
Before  Malcolm  Ceannmor's  day  Iona  had  been  the 
burial-place  of  the  Scottish  Kings,  but  it  was  then 
superseded  by  the  new  foundation  at  Dunfermline. 
Thither  were  brought  the  remains  of  King  Malcolm 
from  Tynemouth,  and  he  was  buried  beside  his  wife 
in  a  shrine  near  the  high  altar,  whose  limestone  base 
is  still  seen  outside  the  modern  church  on  the  east. 
In  1560  Queen  Mary  caused  the  head  of  St.  Margaret 
to  be  brought  to  her  in  Edinburgh  Castle.  After  the 
Queen's  flight  to  England,  a  Benedictine  monk 
guarded  the  relic  "  in  the  Laird  of  Durie's  house," 
where  it  remained  for  thirty  years.   When  the  Jesuits 


152     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


obtained  possession  of  it  in  1620  it  is  known  to  have 
been  in  Antwerp,  where  the  Bishop  formally  attested 
its  authenticity  and  licensed  its  public  exhibition  for 
veneration.  Seven  years  later  it  was  taken  to  the 
Scots  College  at  Donay,  and  in  the  French  Revolu- 
tion it  was  lost  sight  of.  As  for  the  remainder  of  her 
ashes  and  those  of  Malcolm,  they  were  by  some  means 
acquired  by  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  who  placed  them  in 
two  urns  in  the  Chapel  of  St.  Lawrence  in  the  Es- 
curial ;  but  when,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  the  Roman 
Catholic  Bishop  at  Edinburgh  made  application 
through  Pope  Pius  IX.  for  their  restoration,  they 
could  not  be  found.  Among  the  many  illustrious 
persons  buried  at  Dunfermline — Princes  of  the  blood, 
distinguished  nobles,  Queens  and  Kings  (seven  of  the 
former  and  eight  of  the  latter) — there  is  numbered 
King  Robert  Bruce.  The  adventurous  expedition  to 
the  East  of  the  good  Sir  James  Douglas  with  the 
King's  heart  has  already  been  narrated.  The  body 
was  buried  at  Dunfermline,  and  when  the  church  fell 
into  a  state  of  ruin  the  tomb  was  lost  sight  of.  When, 
however,  in  1818-21,  the  dreary  parish  church  that 
now  occupies  the  site  of  the  choir  was  erected,  the 
body  of  the  King  was  discovered,  wrapped  in  its 
winding-sheet  of  cloth  of  gold,  and  with  the  breast- 
bone sawed  through  in  order  to  remove  the  heart.  A 
new  tomb  was  prepared  and  the  public  was  admitted 
to  witness  the  ceremony  of  reinterment ;  "  as  the 
church  could  not  hold  half  the  numbers,  the  people 


FIFE. 


153 


were  allowed  to  pass  through  it,  one  after  another, 
that  each  one,  the  poorest  as  well  as  the  richest,  might 
see  all  that  remained  of  the  great  King  Robert  Bruce, 
who  restored  the  Scottish  monarchy."  1 

The  spot,  when  Bruce  was  buried  there,  must  have 
been  in  front  of  the  high  altar,  but  in  the  present 
arrangement  it  is  directly  beneath  the  pulpit.  How 
Scottish  pilgrims  are  affected  by  the  sight  of  their 
hero-King's  grave  occupying  such  a  position  one  may 
not  know,  but  to  a  traveller  from  over-seas,  approach- 
ing the  place  with  feelings  of  veritable  awe  and 
veneration,  the  shock — to  speak  mildly — is  a  rude 
one,  even  though  he  may  have  been  already  somewhat 
prepared  for  disillusionment  by  the  glaring  vulgarity 
of  the  square  tower,  surmounted  as  it  is  by  an  "  open 
hewn  stone  work,  in  the  place  of  a  Gothic  balustrade, 
having  in  capital  letters  four  feet  high  on  the  four 
sides  of  the  tower's  summit  the  words,  "  King  Robert 
the  Bruce." 

Donibristle  House,  a  few  miles  off  on  the  coast,  is 
where  the  Earl  of  Huntly,  chief  of  the  Gordons, 
came  in  1592  with  a  commission  from  James  VI.  to 
apprehend  the  "  Bonny  Earl  of  Moray 99  (son-in-law 
of  the  Regent  Moray).  The  Earl  resisted,  and  the 
Gordons  set  fire  to  the  mansion,  compelling  the  be- 
sieged to  come  out.  The  Earl,  who  managed  to  escape 
in  the  confusion,  was  making  his  way  down  to  the 
water's  edge,  when  he  was  betrayed  by  the  flames  of 

1  Tales  of  a  Grandfather. 


154     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

some  silken  tassels  on  his  headpiece.  Gordon  of 
Buckie  overtook  and  stabbed  him  first,  and  then  com- 
pelled the  Earl  of  Huntly  to  strike  as  well,  that  he 
might  be  as  deeply  implicated  as  himself.  Huntly 
gave  a  hesitating  blow  on  the  face  of  his  enemy; 
whereupon  the  dying  man,  mindful  of  the  beauty  for 
which  he  was  so  famed,  exclaimed,  "You  have 
spoiled  a  better  face  than  your  oavii  I"  The  well-known 
ballad  is  founded  on  these  incidents. 

On  the  Island  of  Inchcolm,  which  lies  about  a  mile 
off  the  coast,  is  the  small  chapel  (used  not  so  very 
long  ago  as  a  pig-sty)  which  has  been  identified  as 
the  cell  of  a  Columban  hermit,  who  occupied  the 
island  in  the  time  of  Alexander  I.  The  King  was 
crossing  the  Forth  by  the  Queen's  Ferry  in  the  year 
1123,  when  he  was  driven  on  the  island  by  a  storm, 
and  in  gratitude  for  his  preservation  and  hospitable 
treatment  by  the  hermit,  he  raised  an  abbey  to  St. 
Columba  close  to  his  host's  cell.  Many  of  the  monastic 
buildings,  erected  at  different  periods,  are  still  standing 
in  fairly  good  preservation,  notably  the  beautiful  octa- 
gonal chapter  house,  dating  from  the  end  of  the  thir- 
teenth century.  From  earliest  times  in  its  history  Inch- 
colm was  a  favorite  place  of  burial,  and  Shakespeare 
makes  it  the  burial-place  of  the  slain  followers  of 
Sweno,  King  of  the  Danes,  after  his  defeat  by  Macbeth. 

"  Nor  would  we  deign  him  burial  of  his  men 
Till  he  disbursed  at  St.  Colm's  Inch 
Ten  thousand  dollars  to  our  general  use." 


Dunfermline  Abbey 


FIFE. 


155 


Above  the  harbor  of  Burntisland  stands  Eossend 
Castle,  replacing  one  built  in  1382  by  Durie  of  Durie. 
In  Queen  Mary's  time  it  belonged  to  Kirkcaldy  of 
Grange,  and  it  was  when  she  was  spending  a  night 
there,  on  her  way  to  St.  Andrews  in  1563,  that  the 
infatuated  Chastelard  made  his  way  into  her  chamber, 
for  which  indiscretion  he  was  beheaded  shortly  after- 
wards at  St.  Andrews. 

About  two  and  a  half  miles  east  of  Burntisland, 
on  a  cliff  overhanging  the  sea,  is  a  modern  monu- 
ment, marking  the  spot  where  King  Alexander  III., 
riding  along  the  coast  in  the  dusk,  fell  over  a  low 
precipice  and  was  killed  in  March,  1286.  It  was 
the  death  of  this  monarch,  the  last  of  the  old  Celtic 
line  of  Kings,  that  brought  such  unutterable  woes  to 
Scotland.  At  this  time  Scotland  was  on  the  friend- 
liest terms  with  England,  whose  sovereign,  Edward  L, 
was  Alexander's  brother-in-law.  But  the  conduct  of 
Edward  to  Scotland  during  the  wars  of  National 
Independence  bred  that  distrust  of  the  English  and 
introduced  the  constant  warfare  which  continued  for 
centuries.  Alexander  was  dearly  beloved  by  his 
people  for  his  peace-loving  policy,  and  was  known, 
says  Wyntoun,  as  the  "  Pessybill  Kyng "  (peaceable 
king),  showing  that  in  spite  of  an  often  misconceived 
idea  our  ancestors  loved  peace  more  than  war.  The 
old  chronicle  tells  that  "  neuer  was  ther  more  lamen- 
tatione  and  sorrow  for  a  king  in  Scotland  then  for 
him ;  for  the  nobility,  clergie,  and  above  all  the  gen- 


156     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

trey  and  comons,  bedoued  his  coffin  for  seventeen 
dayes'  space  with  riuoletts  of  teares."  There  was  a 
lament  made  for  him  which  is  quoted  by  Wyntoun, 
and  which  is  probably  the  oldest  preserved  song  in 
the  Scottish  language : 

"  Quhen  Alysandyr  oure  Kyng  wes  dede, 

That  Scotland  led  in  luwe  and  16, 
Away  was  sons  [wealth]  off  ale  and  brede, 

Off  wyne  and  wax,  off  gamyn  and  gle : 
Oure  gold  was  changyd  into  lede. 

Cryst,  born  into  Vyrgynyte, 
Succoure  Scotland  and  remede 

That  stad  is  in  perplexyte." 

The  history  of  Dysart,  further  up  the  coast,  dates 
from  the  days  of  St.  Serf,  from  whose  cell — called 
desertum,  a  "  solitude  "  — the  town  is  supposed  to  be 
named.  This  cell — a  cave — is  in  the  grounds  of 
Dysart  House,  the  seat  until  very  lately  of  the  St. 
Clair  Erskines,  Earls  of  Roslin,  on  the  west  of  the 
town.  The  ruins  of  Ravenscraig,  the  ancient  strong- 
hold granted  by  James  III.  to  William  St.  Clair, 
third  Earl  of  Orkney,  in  1470  are  also  to  be  seen 
close  by.  On  a  cliff  overlooking  the  Forth  about 
two  miles  above  Dysart  stands  Wemyss  Castle,  where 
Queen  Mary  was  staying  in  the  winter  of  1565  when 
Darnley  came  on  his  impetuous  wooing  and  captured 
her  fancy  with  his  masterful  ways  and  length  of  limb.1 

1  There  is  considerable  reason  to  doubt  however  that  Mary  was  solely 
attracted  to  Darnley  by  his  personal  appearance,  and  there  is  more 
reason  to  believe  that  deep  policy  may  have  influenced  her.  Mary's 


FIFE. 


157 


The  family  of  Wemyss  is  descended  from  Macduff, 
Mownaer  of  Fife  in  Malcolm  Ceannmor's  time,  and 
the  red  sandstone  ruin  near  East  Wemyss  is  said  to 
have  been  part  of  the  stronghold  of  Shakespeare's 
Macduff,  Thane  of  Fife. 

Nine  or  ten  miles  to  the  northwest  is  Falkland 
Palace,  closely  associated  with  more  than  one  event 
of  moment  in  Scottish  history.  In  1402,  when  it 
was  the  property  of  the  Earls  of  Fife,  it  was  the 
scene  of  the  tragedy  of  the  Duke  of  Rothesay's 
death,  the  mystery  of  which  has  never  been  satisfac- 
torily cleared  up.  The  young  Prince — who  was  the 
eldest  son  of  King  Robert  III.,  and  consequently  heir 

life  policy  was  to  secure  the  succession  to  the  English  throne,  to  which 
she  was  the  legitimist  heir  as  granddaughter  of  Margaret  Tudor, 
elder  daughter  of  Henry  VII.  It  was  argued  against  her  that, 
being  an  alien,  her  claim  was  forfeited.  Darnley  (the  grandson 
of  the  same  Margaret  Tudor,  who,  on  the  death  of  James  IV., 
had  married  the  Earl  of  Angus,  whose  daughter  was  Darnley's 
mother)  was  after  Mary  the  next  in  hereditary  claim  and  against 
him  there  was  not  the  same  objection.  His  grandparents,  driven 
from  Scotland  by  James  V.,  were  domiciled  English.  His  mother, 
Lady  Margaret  Douglas,  was  born  in  England,  the  protege  of  her 
uncle,  Henry  VIII.,  and  remained  with  him  in  England  even  after 
her  parents  returned  to  Scotland  and  never  left  it.  Henry  himself 
gave  her  as  a  bride  to  the  Earl  of  Lennox,  who  was  naturalized 
by  him  as  an  Englishman  in  1544  and  remained  such  for  twenty 
years.  Darnley  was  born  in  Temple  Newsome,  near  Leeds  in 
Yorkshire,  and  did  not  even  visit  Scotland  until  twenty  years  old. 
He  thus  could  not  be  objected  to  as  an  alien,  and  indeed  he  was 
put  forward  by  a  section  of  the  Catholic  Party  as  a  pretender  to 
the  English  throne.  Mary  probably  felt  that  by  marrying  him  she 
strengthened  her  claim  on  the  English  succession. 


158     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOM ANTIC. 

to  the  throne — was  brought  there  by  his  uncle,  the 
Duke  of  Albany  (Earl  of  Fife  and  Menteith  and 
later  Governor  of  the  kingdom),  and,  as  is  generally 
supposed,  starved  to  death.  Two  women  who  at- 
tempted to  supply  him  with  food  were  discovered  and 
stopped,  and  after  fifteen  days  of  suffering  he  expired. 
The  Castle  took  the  designation  of  Palace  from  having 
been  occupied  by  the  Duke  of  Albany  when  he  was 
Governor.  That  structure,  however,  has  totally  dis- 
appeared. What  we  see  to-day  is  the  work  of  the 
third,  fourth  and  fifth  Jameses,  more  especially  of  the 
last,  who  is  credited  with  having  brought  back  a  taste 
for  palace  building  and  the  workmen  to  carry  it  out, 
from  France,  when  he  returned  with  his  bride  Made- 
leine, daughter  of  Francis  I.  It  was  from  Falkland 
that  he  made  his  escape  when  a  boy  from  the  irksome 
restraint  in  which  the  Douglases,  headed  by  his  step- 
father, the  Earl  of  Angus,  had  kept  him  for  so  long. 
Giving  out  that  he  was  going  off  early  on  a  hunting 
expedition,  he  disguised  himself  as  a  stable  boy  and, 
under  pretence  of  doing  something  about  the  King's 
horse,  slipped  out  of  the  Palace  and  off,  gaining  Stir- 
ling Castle  in  safety.  He  never  fell  again  into  the 
power  of  the  Douglases,  nor  did  he  ever  forgive  them, 
hunting  them  down  mercilessly  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
His  death  occurred  at  Falkland  in  1542,  immediately 
after  the  defeat  at  Sol  way  Moss. 

"  The  certain  knowledge  of  the  discomfiture  coming 
to  the  King's  ears,  who  waited  upon  the  news  at  Loch 


FIFE. 


159 


Maben,  he  was  stricken  with  a  sudden  fear  and  aston- 
ishment, so  that  scarcely  could  he  speak  or  hold  pur- 
pose with  any  man.  The  night  constrained  him  to 
remain  where  he  was ;  so  he  yead  to  bed,  but  rose 
without  rest  or  quiet  sleep.  His  continual  complaint 
was  'Oh,  fled  Oliver?  Is  Oliver  tane?  Oh,  fled 
Oliver  V  [His  favorite,  Oliver  St.  Clair,  commanded 
at  Sol  way  Moss.]  And  these  words  in  his  melan- 
choly, and  as  it  were  carried  away  in  a  trance,  re- 
peated he  from  time  to  time  to  the  very  hour  of  his 
death/' 1 

A  few  days  later  the  King  was  in  Fife  staying  with 
Kirkcaldy  of  Grange  and  his  lady.  His  servants 
asked  where  he  proposed  passing  the  Yule,  that  they 
might  make  preparation.  "  He  answered  with  a  dis- 
dainful smirk :  '  I  cannot  tell,  choose  ye  the  place. 
But  this  I  can  tell  you,  before  Yule  Day  ye  will  be 
masterless  and  the  realm  without  a  King!'  ...  So 
he  returned  to  Falkland  and  took  to  bed,  and  albeit 
there  appeared  unto  him  no  signs  of  death,  yet  he  con- 
stantly affirmed, 1  Before  such  a  day  I  shall  be  dead ! ' 

"  In  the  meantime  was  the  Queen  upon  the  point 
of  her  delivery  in  Linlithgow,  who  was  delivered  the 
eighth  day  of  December,  1542,  of  Marie  that  then 
was  born,  and  now  doth  reign  for  a  plague  to  this 
realm,  as  the  progress  of  her  whole  life  up  to  this 
day  declareth.  The  certainty  that  a  daughter  was 
born  unto  him  coming  to  his  ears,  the  King  turned 

1  History  of  the  Reformation,  John  Knox. 


160     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


from  such  as  spake  with  him  and  said :  *  The  devil  go 
with  it !  It  will  end  as  it  began.  It  came  from  a 
woman,  and  it  will  end  in  a  woman.'  After  that  he 
spake  not  many  words  that  were  sensible,  but  ever 
harped  upon  this  old  song,  1  Fye,  fled  Oliver  ?  Is 
Oliver  tane  ?    All  is  lost ! '  "  1 

Far  different  from  this  melancholy  death-bed  scene 
at  Falkland  is  the  picture  of  the  same  place  drawn  in 
that  rollicking  poem,  "  Christis  Kirk,"  sometimes  at- 
tributed to  James  V.  himself  and  sometimes  to  his 
ancestor,  James  I.  : 

"  Was  nevir  in  Scotland  hard  nor  sene 

Sic  dansin  nor  deray, 
Nouthir  at  Falkland  on  the  Grene, 

Nor  Pebillis  at  the  Play 
As  wes  of  wowaris  as  I  wene 

At  Christis  Kirk  on  ane  day." 

James  VI.  was  particularly  fond  of  Falkland,  and 
was  there  on  a  hunting  trip  when  the  singular  inci- 
dent of  the  Gowrie  Plot  occurred.  The  palace 
suffered  from  a  fire  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  and 
later  from  neglect  and  final  abandonment,  but  after 

1  Pitscottie's  account  is  more  picturesque.  "  The  messenger  said  : 
'It  is  a  fair  daughter.'  The  King  answered:  'Adieu!  Farewell! 
It  came  with  a  lass  and  it  will  pass  with  a  lass.'  And  so  he  recom- 
mended himself  to  the  mercy  of  Almighty  God  and  spake  little  from 
that  time  forth." 

The  reference  is  to  the  coming  of  the  crown  to  the  Stewart  family 
through  the  marriage  of  the  sixth  High  Steward  with  the  daughter 
of  Robert  Bruce.  James  V.  was  the  last  heir  male  of  the  old  royal 
Stewart  line. 


Falkland  Palace 


FIFE. 


161 


passing  through  several  hands  it  was  purchased  in 
1888  by  the  Marquis  of  Bute,  and  is  now  in  a  fair 
state  of  preservation. 

On  the  northern  edge  of  Fife  close  to  the  Firth  of 
Tay  is  Newburgh  and  adjoining  it  the  Abbey  of  Lin- 
dores,  founded  towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century 
by  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  of  which  only  some 
fragmentary  ruins  are  left.  Here  was  buried  the  un- 
fortunate Duke  of  Eothesay,  whose  body,  according  to 
the  legend,  persisted  in  performing  unasked  miracles 
until  his  brother  James  I.,  after  many  years  had  elapsed, 
punished  the  murderers,  when  the  miracles  ceased. 

A  fragment  of  Cross  Macduff,  the  Garth  or  Sanctu- 
ary of  the  Clan  Macduff,  stands  in  a  pass  of  the  Ochills 
leading  up  from  northern  Fifeshire.  Here  any  mem- 
ber of  the  clan  or  any  person  related  to  the  chief 
within  the  ninth  degree,  who  had  committed  unpre- 
meditated manslaughter  could  flee  for  refuge,  and 
by  laying  hold  of  one  of  nine  iron  rings  fastened  in 
the  stone,  washing  nine  times  in  the  near-by  spring, 
called  the  Nine  Wells,  and  making  an  offering  of  nine 
cows  and  a  colpendach,  or  young  cow,  escape  punish- 
ment ;  but  should  he  fail  to  prove  his  title  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  clan  or  one  related  to  its  chief,  he  was 
instantly  put  to  death  and  buried  on  the  spot. 

Much  further  west  towards  the  mouth  of  the  Firth 
of  Tay  are  the  ruins  of  Balmerino  Abbey,  founded 
by  Ermengarde,  widow  of  William  the  Lion  in  1 229, 
and  dedicated  to  the  Virgin  and  Edward  the  Con- 
Yol.  II.— 11 


1G2     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 


fessor.  The  Queen  was  buried  there  herself  in  1233. 
The  English  Admiral  Wyndham  burned  the  abbey  in 
the  Somerset  expedition  of  1547,  and  it  was  destroyed 
in  common  with  a  number  of  other  ecclesiastical 
buildings  in  Fife  by  the  Eeformers  in  1559.  Only 
portions  of  the  chapter  house,  transept  and  sacristy  re- 
main, with  some  substructures. 

Cupar,  the  county  town  of  Fife,  stands  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Eden.  Two  or  three  miles  to  the  north- 
west was  The  Mount,  the  seat  of  the  poet  Sir  David 
Lindsay  (1490-1555),  and  his  "Satyre  of  the  Thrie 
Estaitis  "  was  first  presented  on  the  Castle  Hill  in  the 
town.  Thither  at  seven  o'clock  of  a  June  morning 
in  the  year  1535  streamed  the  people  from  far  and 
near  to  witness  the  play-acting,  which,  including  some 
intervals  to  allow  actors  and  audience  to  get  their  din- 
ner, lasted  for  nine  hours.  The  subject  of  the  satire 
was  the  then  condition  of  the  Church  and  State,  and 
it  is  recorded  that  after  seeing  a  later  performance  at 
Linlithgow  the  King  (James  V.)  sent  for  a  num- 
ber of  the  Bishops  and  the  Chancellor  and  repri- 
manded them,  threatening  if  they  did  not  amend 
"  their  fashions  and  manners  of  living "  to  send 
"  some  of  the  proudest  of  them  unto  his  uncle  of 
England." 

At  Leuchars,  in  the  northwest  of  Fife,  is  one  of  the 
best  existing  examples  of  a  Norman  parish  church 
in  Scotland.  The  choir  and  apse  of  the  original 
building — the  latter  now  surmounted  by  a  modern 


FIFE. 


163 


turret — remain,  and  to  these  has  been  added  a  modern 
church. 

Magus  Moor,  the  scene  of  the  murder  (May  3, 
1679)  of  Archbishop  Sharp,  lies  a  few  miles  to  the 
southwest  of  St.  Andrews  on  the  road  to  Ceres.  A 
party,  numbering  twelve,  of  the  most  fanatical  sect 
of  the  Covenanters  had  assembled  in  the  neighbor- 
hood for  the  purpose  of  killing  one  Carmichael,  who 
had  made  himself  especially  obnoxious  to  their  people. 
Carmichael  however  eluded  them,  and  just  at  the  mo- 
ment when,  angered  and  disappointed  at  their  failure, 
they  were  about  to  disperse,  word  was  brought  that 
the  Archbishop,  accompanied  only  by  his  daughter, 
was  approaching.  Surely  a  heaven-sent  opportunity. 
Intercepting  the  carriage  therefore  they  fired  shot 
after  shot  into  it,  but  none  took  effect.  Here  clearly 
was  the  intervention  of  the  Evil  One,  but  they  would 
trust  no  more  to  balls  and  powder.  Dragging  the  old 
man  forth,  they  hacked  and  slashed  at  him  with 
swords,  doing  their  work  so  ill  that  the  daughter  was 
hurt,  while  the  father  was  not  finally  dispatched  for 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  from  the  moment  of  attack. 
A  humming  bee  that  flew  out  when  they  opened  his 
snuff-box  was  pronounced  to  be  his  "  familiar "  and 
taken  as  conclusive  proof  of  collusion  with  the  devil. 
A  lad  who  was  with  the  party,  but  did  not  participate 
in  the  murder,  was  hanged  on  the  spot  four  years 
later,  together  with  five  prisoners  taken  at  Bothwell 
Brig,  although  they  had  no  possible  connection  with 


104     SCOTLAND.  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


the  crime.  A  pyramid  now  marks  the  place,  with  a 
Latin  inscription,  and  near  it  is  a  stone  to  the  memory 
of  the  Bothwell  Brig  Covenanters. 

The  traditional  account  of  the  founding  of  St.  An- 
drews— hazy  and  confused  as  to  dates  and  personages, 
and  probably  a  compilation  from  two  different  legends 
— brings  St.  Regulus  to  the  northeast  coast  of  Scot- 
land with  certain  relics  of  St.  Andrew,  and  under 
orders — delivered  by  an  an^el — to  found  a  church 
wherever  his  ship  should  be  wrecked.  This  event 
happening  near  the  present  harbor  of  St.  Andrews 
and  the  King  of  the  Picts  receiving  him  kindly,  the 
church  was  forthwith  founded,  and  St.  Peter,  hitherto 
the  national  saint,  was  deposed  and  St.  Andrew  put  in 
his  stead  i  731-747).  Some  time  prior  to  the  tenth 
century  the  place  had  become  of  sufficient  importance 
for  the  primacy  to  be  removed  thither  from  Abernethy. 
"  Why,"  asks  Mr.  JEneas  Mackay,  in  his  History  of 
Fife  and  Kinross,  "  should  a  spot  so  barren  and  exposed 
have  l>een  selected  for  the  Scottish  Canterbury  ?  Proba- 
bly it  was  because  it  alone  claimed,  of  all  the  churches 
of  Scotland,  the  possession  of  the  relics  of  an  apostle, 
the  brother  of  St.  Peter.  The  name  of  St.  Andrew,  as 
the  church  multiplied  and  became  more  closely  connect- 
ed with  Rome,  was  deemed  more  venerable  than  that 
of  St.  Columba  or  St.  Serf,  or  any  local  Celtic  saint.'' 

The  Culdee  influence  seems  to  have  been  particu- 
larly strong  there,  and  survived  in  the  face  of  the 
repressive  measures  of  David  I.  and  subsequent  Kings, 


FIFE. 


165 


lingering  under  other  names  down  even  to  Reforma- 
tion  times. 

From  Cellach,  Bishop  of  St.  Andrews  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  tenth  century,  down  to  James  Kennedy 
(1440-66)  thirty-six  Bishops  held  the  See  successively. 
Then  Pope  Sixtus  IV.  erected  it  into  an  Archbishop- 
ric, and  up  to  the  Reformation  eight  Archbishops, 
including  James  Beaton  and  his  nephew,  Cardinal 
Beaton,  held  the  office;  John  Hamilton,  executed  at 
Stirling  for  treason,  being  the  last.  These  Archbish- 
ops were  persons  of  enormous  influence  and  import- 
ance; they  levied  customs,  coined  money,  controlled 
the  affairs  of  two  hundred  and  forty-five  parishes, 
were  included  with  the  King  in  the  oath  of  allegiance, 
and  took  precedence  immediately  after  the  royal 
family  and  ahead  of  every  noble  in  the  realm.  There 
were  three  Tulchan  Bishops1  after  the  Reformation, 
and  then  Spottiswoode  the  historian,  Sharp  (whose 
death  is  described  above),  Burnet  and  Ross  held  the 
Archbishopric  successively  for  thirty-two  years.  After 
the  death  of  the  last-named,  in  1688,  there  came  the 
Revolution,  when  the  Episcopate  was  dissolved.  Pres- 

*"  Tulchan  Bishops"  was  a  name  contemptuously  applied  to 
those  clergymen  who,  about  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  accepted 
Bishoprics  in  order  to  draw  legally  their  revenues,  which  they 
handed  over  to  lay  patrons,  reserving  for  themselves  a  mere  pit- 
tance. The  word  "  Tulchan  "  means  the  skin  of  a  calf  stuffed 
with  straw,  placed  at  milking-time  beside  a  cow  whose  calf  has  died, 
to  induce  it  to  part  with  its  milk,  a  custom  once  prevalent  in  Scot- 
land and  still  existing  in  India  and  some  other  countries. 


166     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

bytery  was  established  as  the  National  Church,  and  the 
Episcopal  Church  became  merely  a  voluntary  organiza- 
tion. St.  Andrews  was  early  hallowed  by  the  blood 
of  the  Protestant  martyrs.  John  Reseby,  a  follower 
of  Wy cliff,  in  1408  ;  Paul  Crawar,  a  disciple  of  Huss 
and  Jerome  of  Prague,  in  1432,  and  Patrick  Hamil- 
ton, the  gifted  and  well-born  Abbot  of  Fearn,  who 
preached  the  doctrines  of  Luther,  in  1527,  were  all 
burned  alive  there ;  and  there,  in  1 546,  George  Wis- 
hart  was  executed  in  front  of  the  Castle. 

"  When  the  fire  was  made  ready,  and  the  gallows, 
at  the  west  part  of  the  Castle  of  St.  Andrews,  near 
the  Priory,  my  Lord  Cardinal,  dreading  that  Master 
George  should  have  been  taken  away  by  his  friends, 
commanded  to  bend  all  the  ordnance  of  the  Castle  right 
against  the  place  of  execution  and  commanded  all  his 
gunners  to  stand  beside  their  guns  until  such  time  as 
he  was  burned.  They  bound  Master  George's  hands 
behind  his  back,  and  led  him  forth  with  their  soldiers 
from  the  Castle  to  the  place  of  their  cruel  and  wicked 
execution.  .  .  .  Many  faithful  words  said  he  in  the 
meantime,  taking  no  care  of  the  cruel  torments  pre- 
pared for  him.  Last  of  all,  the  hangman,  his  tor- 
mentor, upon  his  knees,  said :  '  Sir,  I  pray  you  for- 
give me,  for  I  am  not  guilty  of  your  death  f  to  whom 
he  answered :  i  Come  hither  to  me.'  When  he  was 
come  to  him,  he  kissed  his  cheek  and  said  :  '  Lo !  here 
is  a  token  that  I  forgive  thee.  My  heart,  do  thine 
office  !'    Then  the  trumpet  sounding,  he  was  put  upon 


FIFE. 


167 


the  gibbet  and  hanged,  and  there  burnt  to  powder. 
When  the  people  beheld  the  great  tormenting  of  that 
innocent,  they  might  not  withhold  from  piteous  and 
complaining  of  the  innocent  lamb's  slaughter."  1  This 
was  on  the  1st  of  March,  1546,  and  three  months 
were  not  suffered  to  elapse  before  vengeance  overtook 
the  chief  perpetrator,  Cardinal  Beaton.  It  is  said 
that  his  plans  to  cut  off  all  whom  he  had  any  reason 
to  fear  comprehended  the  seizure  and  probable  mur- 
der, on  Monday,  the  31st  of  May,  of  Norman  Leslie 
son  of  the  Earl  of  Rothes,  John  Leslie  his  uncle, 
the  Lairds  of  Grange — father  and  son,  and  a  number 
of  other  Fifeshire  gentlemen.  But  on  the  Saturday 
the  intended  victims  took  matters  into  their  own 
hands.  When  the  drawbridge  was  lowered,  very  early 
in  the  morning,  to  admit  some  workmen,  they  slipped 
in  and  got  possession  of  the  Castle. 

"  The  Cardinal,"  says  Knox,  "  wakened  with  the 
shouts,  asked  from  his  window,  '  What  means  that 
noise?'  It  was  answered  that  Norman  Leslie  had 
taken  the  Castle.  Which  understood,  he  ran  to  the 
postern  ;  but  perceiving  the  passage  to  be  kept  without, 
he  returned  quickly  to  his  chamber,  took  his  two- 
handed  sword,  and  made  his  chamber-child  cast  kists 
and  other  impediments  to  the  door.  In  the  meantime 
came  John  Leslie  unto  it,  and  bid  open. 

"The  Cardinal—  'Who  calls?' 

"  Leslie — i  My  name  is  Leslie.' 

1  History  of  the  Reformation,  John  Knox. 


168     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

"  The  Cardinal—'  Is  that  Norman  ?' 
"  Leslie — '  Nay,  my  name  is  John.' 
"  The  Cardinal — '  I  will  have  Norman.    He  is  my 
friend.' 

"  Leslie — '  Content  yourself  with  such  as  are  here. 
Other  shall  ye  get  none.' 

"  There  were  with  the  said  John,  James  Melvin,  a 
man  familiarly  acquainted  with  Master  George  Wish- 
art,  and  Peter  Carmichael,  a  stout  gentleman.  In  the 
meantime,  while  they  force  the  door,  the  Cardinal 
hides  a  box  of  gold  under  coals  that  were  laid  in  a  secret 
corner.    At  length  he  asked,  'Will  ye  save  my  life?' 

"  Leslie — '  It  may  be  that  we  will.' 

"  The  Cardinal — '  Nay,  swear  unto  me  by  God's 
wounds,  and  I  shall  open  unto  you.' 

"  Leslie — '  It  that  was  said  is  unsaid.    Fire  !  fire  !' 

"  The  door  was  very  stark ;  and  so  was  brought  a 
chymlay  (grate)  full  of  burning  coals ;  which  per- 
ceived, the  Cardinal  or  his  chamber-child  —  it  is 
uncertain — opened  the  door,  and  the  Cardinal  sat 
down  in  a  chair,  and  cried, 1 1  am  a  priest !  I  am  a 
priest !  Ye  will  not  slay  me  !'  John  Leslie,  accord- 
ing to  his  former  vows,  struck  him  first,  once  or 
twice,  and  so  did  the  said  Peter.  But  James  Melvin, 
a  man  of  nature  most  gentle  and  most  modest,  per- 
ceiving them  both  in  choler,  withdrew  them  and  said, 
'This  judgement  of  God,  although  it  be  secret,  ought 
to  be  done  with  greater  gravity.'  "  Melvin  then  ex- 
horted the  Cardinal  to  repentance,  stated  the  imper- 


FIFE. 


169 


sonal  motives  that  had  led  them  to  take  the  execution 
of  justice  into  their  own  hands,  and  then  "  struck  the 
Cardinal  twice  or  thrice  through  with  a  stog  (stabbing) 
sword ;  and  he  fell,  never  word  heard  out  of  his 
mouth  but  'I  am  a  priest!  I  am  a  priest !  Fie,  fie! 
All  is  gone!'" 

The  Cardinal's  body,  after  being  exhibited  to  the 
townspeople,  was  cast  into  the  bottle-shaped  dungeon 
beneath  the  Sea  Tower,  at  the  northwest  corner  of  the 
Castle,  where  it  lay  unburied  for  some  time. 

The  conspirators  were  reinforced  by  many  persons 
from  different  parts  of  Scotland,  who,  for  one  reason 
or  another,  felt  themselves  to  be  in  danger — an  oddly- 
assorted  company,  among  whom  were  John  Knox  and 
his  three  pupils.  Fancy  what  would  be  the  sensations 
of  three  school-boys  of  the  twentieth  century  on  finding 
that  the  exigencies  of  their  education  required  them  to 
be  besieged  for  fourteen  months  in  a  coast  fortress! 
The  siege  was  conducted  by  land  and  sea — first 
by  the  half-hearted  forces  of  the  Queen  Regent,  but 
later  by  a  French  expedition  under  Leo  Strozzi, 
Prior  of  Capua.  This  experienced  soldier  quickly 
discovered  that  the  Castle  was  commanded  from  the 
towers  of  the  Cathedral.  On  them  he  mounted  can- 
non, and  the  Castle  surrendered.  Thus  the  cham- 
pion of  Popery  was  the  first  to  begin  the  desecration 
of  the  grand  Cathedral  of  St.  Andrews.  The  Castle, 
which  had  suffered  much  damage  in  the  siege,  un- 
fortunately fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Town  Council 


170     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 

in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  was  pulled  to  pieces 
to  furnish  materials  wherewith  to  rebuild  the  pier. 
It  was  about  the  time  of  the  siege  that  Knox  un- 
willingly consented  to  take  upon  himself  the  office 
of  a  preacher,  and  he  delivered  his  first  sermon  in 
Holy  Trinity  Church.1  With  the  other  defenders  of 
the  Castle,  Knox  was  made  prisoner,  and  for  nine- 
teen months  served  the  French  as  a  galley-slave. 
On  one  occasion,  in  1548,  while  his  galley  lay  near 
St.  Andrews,  his  companion  pointed  out  the  town  to 
Knox,  who  was  exceedingly  ill.  He  raised  himself 
up  and  said,  "  I  know  it  well,  for  I  see  the  stepill  of 
that  place  whare  God  first  in  publict  opened  my 
mouth  to  his  glorie,  and  I  am  fully  persuaded,  how 
weak  that  ever  I  now  appear,  that  I  shall  not  de- 
parte  this  lyif  till  that  my  toung  shall  glorifie  his 
godlie  name  in  the  same  place." 

He  was  liberated  the  following  year,  at  the  inter- 
cession of  Edward  VI.,  but  it  was  not  until  eleven 
years  later  that  he  again  visited  St.  Andrews  and 
fulfilled  his  prophecy. 

This  was  on  June  2,  1559,  when  Knox  preached  in 

1  In  this  building,  now  called  The  Town  Church  (Presbyterian), 
is  the  monument  to  Archbishop  Sharp,  put  up  by  his  son,  Sir 
William  Sharp.  An  angel  is  represented  in  the  act  of  giving  him 
the  crown  of  martyrdom,  and  in  two  bas  reliefs  he  is  seen,  in  the 
one  supporting  by  his  own  efforts  a  falling  church,  in  the  other  in 
the  hands  of  his  murderers.  When  the  vault  was  opened,  about 
fifty  years  ago,  it  was  found  that  the  body  had  been  removed,  when, 
why  or  by  whom  is  not  known. 


Entrance  to  St.  Andrews  Palace 


FIFE. 


171 


Holy  Trinity  Church  the  first  of  that  series  of  fiery  ser- 
mons against  idolatry  that  roused  the  entire  nation. 
The  people  of  St.  Andrews  rushed  to  the  Cathedral  and 
tore  down  the  images.  That  they  further  damaged  the 
building  at  that  time  is  not  recorded,  and  moreover 
is  not  probable ;  John  Knox  was  always  opposed  to 
the  destruction  of  churches.  There  is  indeed  great 
doubt  as  to  when  the  Cathedral  was  destroyed,  and 
it  is  most  likely  that  after  the  damage  begun  by 
Strozzi,  and  continued  by  the  Protestant  mob,  the 
disused  church  fell  into  disrepair ;  the  usual  sequence 
followed :  the  ancient  building  was  now  used  as  a 
quarry  by  the  inhabitants,  and  thus  shared  the  fate 
of  many  another  noble  building  in  Scotland. 

Distressingly  little  is  left  now  to  show  what  the 
ecclesiastical  buildings  of  St.  Andrews  once  were. 
The  Cathedral  was  begun  in  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  century,  and  was  about  one  hundred  and 
fifteen  years  in  building.  All  that  remains  is  the 
wall  at  the  east  end  and  a  part  of  the  west  end  wall, 
besides  some  portions  of  the  south  wall  of  the  nave 
and  of  the  south  transept.  Near  the  east  end  is  the 
small  church  of  St.  Regulus,  with  its  astonishingly 
high  tower,  identified  as  that  "basilica"  put  up  by 
Bishop  Robert  in  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century, 
and  which  served  no  doubt  for  the  Cathedral  Church 
before  the  later  magnificent  structure  was  *  erected. 
Robert  Chambers,  the  author  and  publisher,  lies 
buried  within  its  walls. 


172     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Beyond  the  Cathedral  wall  on  the  northeast  are  the 
foundations,  discovered  in  I860,  of  the  little  Church 
of  St.  Mary  on  the  Kirk  Heugh. 

Of  Bishop  Robert's  splendid  Priory,  founded  in 
1144,  only  some  scattered  and  fragmentary  portions 
remain.  The  entire  precincts,  including  an  area  of 
twenty  acres,  were  surrounded  by  Prior  Hepburn  in 
the  sixteenth  century  with  a  stately  wall,  and  of  this 
a  considerable  section  is  still  standing.  But  for  the 
rest,  parts  of  the  Chapter  House,  of  the  Prior's 
House  (the  Old  Inn),  of  the  Cloister  and  the  Abbey 
Mill  and  Tiend  Barn — still  in  use,  on  the  southwest — 
are  all  that  remain.  The  beautiful  arched  entrance 
gateway  called  the  Pends  stands  on  the  right  as  one 
faces  the  west  end  of  the  Cathedral,  and  just  opposite 
the  latter  is  the  Archdeacon's  manse. 

St.  Andrews,  the  most  venerable  of  Scottish  Uni- 
versities, began  with  the  founding  of  St.  Mary's 
College  in  1412  by  Bishop  Wardlaw.  The  next  in 
point  of  age  comes  St.  Salvator  College,  founded  by 
Bishop  Kennedy  in  1456,  then  St.  Leonards,  founded 
in  1512  by  Prior  Hepburn,  and  finally  the  college 
dedicated  by  Archbishop  James  Beaton  to  the  Virgin 
Mary  some  fifteen  or  twenty  years  later. 

To-day  there  are  but  two  corporations,  the  United 
College  of  St.  Salvator  and  St.  Leonard,  and  St. 
Mary's  College,  the  latter  for  instruction  in  theology 
solely.  The  only  surviving  ancient  building  belong- 
ing to  the  former  is  the  Collegiate  Church  of  St.  Sal- 


FIFE. 


173 


vator  adjoining  the  modern  buildings  of  the  United 
College  on  the  north  side  of  North  Street.  It  is 
known  as  "  the  College  Kirk )y  and  is  used  both  as  a 
parish  church  and  for  the  official  services  of  the  uni- 
versity. Within  is  the  tomb  of  Bishop  Kennedy, 
which,  though  injured  by  the  fall  of  the  stone  roof 
some  time  in  the  eighteenth  century,  is  still  very 
imposing.  An  old  tradition  of  the  finding  of  six 
silver  maces  in  this  tomb  in  1683,  "of  which  three 
were  presented  to  the  other  Scottish  universities,"  has 
been  lately  exploded,  and  the  maces  of  Glasgow, 
Aberdeen  and  Edinburgh  shown  to  have  been  made 
expressly  for  those  universities  and  at  different 
periods.  There  is  a  fragment  of  the  Church  of  St. 
Leonard's  College  still  standing;  and  in  the  grounds 
of  Madras  College — a  boys'  school  on  South  Street — is 
all  that  remains  of  the  sixteenth  century  Church  of 
the  Blackfriars,  ruined  by  a  mob  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation. 

St.  Mary's  College  is  on  South  Street  where  the 
Pedagogy — residence  of  the  masters — once  stood.  On 
the  right  as  one  enters  the  quadrangle  is  the  library 
and  beyond  it  the  residence  and  charming  gardens  of 
the  principal,  and  there  is  seen  the  gnarled  and  ancient 
thorn  tree  known  as  Queen  Mary's  Thorn.  The  stu- 
dents of  St.  Mary's  wear  no  gowns,  but  those  of  the 
United  College  present  a  highly  picturesque  appear- 
ance in  gowns  of  red  baize  having  velvet  collars. 
Since  1892  women  have  been  admitted  to  the  classes 


]74     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

in  arts,  science  and  medicine  and  they,  like  the  male 
students,  wear  the  university  garb. 

That  which  St.  Andrews  is  perhaps  now  best  known 
for  over  the  entire  world  is  its  golf  links.  It  is  the 
headquarters  of  the  game,  the  Mecca  of  all  golfers. 
Here  the  game  has  been  played  from  very  early  times, 
and  so  popular  was  it  that  it  had  to  be  prohibited  by 
statute  in  the  reign  of  James  II.  (1457)  and  again  by 
James  III.  (1471),  as  its  playing  seriously  interfered 
with  the  more  useful  practice  of  "  shutting  and  arch- 
ery," while  in  Reformation  times  (1599)  the  kirk  ses- 
sion of  St.  Andrews  was  obliged  to  post  sentries  on 
the  links  to  drive  off  its  own  members,  who  were 
playing  "  the  goufe  "  when  they  should  have  been  at- 
tending to  the  service  of  the  kirk. 

These  ancient  links  are  sandy  dunes  broken  by 
bunkers  and  bent  hills  and  covered  with  a  growth  of 
coarse  vegetation. 

They  were  acquired  in  1894  by  the  city  and  have 
contributed  more  than  anything  else  towards  the 
present  prosperity  of  St.  Andrews.  There  are  nine 
holes  out  and  nine  in,  the  whole  round  being  about 
three  and  three-quarter  miles.  The  average  number  of 
strokes  for  good  players  is  from  seventy-six  to  ninety. 

So  crowded  have  these  famous  links  become  in 
modern  times  that  a  new  course  nearer  to  the  sea  has 
lately  been  opened,  which  bids  fair  to  become  as  pop- 
ular as  the  older  historical  one. 

Of  the  very  many  other  interesting  places  in  and 


FIFE. 


175 


about  Fifeshire  a  few  only  can  be  mentioned  and 
those  in  the  briefest  fashion.  There  is  Crail  on  the 
southeast  coast,  with  its  twelfth  century  traditions  of 
a  flourishing  trade  with  the  Netherlands,  and  its  later 
memories  of  John  Knox  preaching  a  sermon  against 
idolatry  in  the  ancient  Collegiate  Church  (June  9, 
1559)  that  had  aroused  great  enthusiasm  at  Perth. 
And  there  is  the  little  Isle  of  May,  off  the  same 
coast,  with  a  thirteenth  century  chapel  to  St.  Adrian 
— still  standing  in  ruins — possessing  an  impossible 
legend  which  involves  that  saint,  the  Irish  St. 
Monans,  and  six  thousand  Hungarians  in  a  ninth 
century  massacre  by  the  Danes.  A  monastery 
founded  on  the  island  by  David  I.  was  later  super- 
seded by  one  at  Pittenweem,  whose  ruins  are  sti)l 
standing.  This  little  town  has  two  sources  of  noto- 
riety— the  quite  unbelievable  cruelty  practiced  by  the 
authorities  on  a  poor  wretch  accused  in  1705  of 
witchcraft  (the  magistrates  were  held  accountable  one 
is  thankful  to  learn)  and  the  robbery  here  from  a 
customs  official  in  1736  by  Wilson  and  Robertson, 
which  led  eventually  to  the  Edinburgh  Porteous  Riot. 

At  St.  Monans,  a  mile  or  so  down  the  coast,  were 
interred  the  relics  of  the  Irish  saint  of  that  name  in 
the  ninth  century.  When  David  II.  arrived  there, 
suffering  from  an  arrow  that  the  surgeons  had  failed 
to  extract  after  the  battle  of  Nevill's  Cross,  he  per- 
formed his  devotions  before  the  tomb  and  the  arrow 
instantly  fell  out.    In  gratitude  he  built  the  church. 


176     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

It  was  destroyed  by  the  English  in  1544,  but  is  now 
restored  and  serves  as  the  parish  church. 

Balcarres,  a  little  north  of  Kilconquhar  Loch,  was 
the  birthplace  (1750)  of  Anne,  eldest  daughter  of 
James  Lindsay,  fifth  Earl  of  Balcarres,  the  authoress 
of  "  Auld  Robin  Gray/'  Lady  Anne  wrote  the  poem 
in  her  girlhood,  but  did  not  acknowledge  it  until  fifty- 
two  years  later,  when  the  oft-quoted  letter  to  Sir 
Walter  Scott  was  drawn  out  by  his  allusion  to  the 
ballad  in  the  Pirate.  In  this  letter  she  tells  of  how, 
as  a  diversion,  she  set  herself  to  provide  words  for  a 
favorite  melody,  disliking  the  coarseness  of  those  to 
which  it  was  commonly  sung.  While  thus  employed 
one  day  she  called  out  to  her  little  sister  (later  Lady 
Hard wi eke),  "  I  have  been  writing  a  ballad,  my  dear ; 
I  am  oppressing  my  heroine  with  many  misfortunes. 
I  have  already  sent  her  Jamie  to  sea  and  broken  her 
father's  arm,  and  made  her  mother  fall  sick  and  given 
her  Auld  Robin  Gray  (the  old  Balcarres  'herd')  for 
a  lover,  but  I  wish  to  load  her  with  a  fifth  sorrow 
within  the  four  lines — poor  thing  !  Help  me  to  one ! 
'  Steal  the  cow,  sister  Anne/  said  the  little  Elizabeth. 
The  cow  was  immediately  lifted  by  me  and  the  song 
completed." 

David  Hume's  intimacy  with  the  Balcarres  house- 
hold and  Sir  Walter  Scott's  recollections  of  Lady 
Anne's  (then  Lady  Anne  Barnard)  residence  in  Hynd- 
ford's  Close  in  Edinburgh  were  alluded  to  at  the  end 
of  Chapter  II. 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 


FORFAR  OR  ANGUS ;  KINCARDINE  OR  THE  MEARNS ; 
ABERDEEN. 

Leaving  Fife  by  way  of  the  railway,  the  crossing 
of  the  River  Tay  into  Forfarshire  or  Angus  is  by  the 
famous  bridge,  two  miles  long,  which  was  the  scene 
of  an  appalling  disaster  on  December  28,  1879.  It 
was  the  most  terrible  storm  of  the  century,  and  it 
was  a  pitchy  dark  night.  At  a  few  minutes  after 
seven  o'clock  a  train  carrying  seventy  passengers  left 
the  Fife  side  and  was  never  seen  again.  Not  a  single 
human  being  survived  to  tell  the  tale  of  the  catastro- 
phe. When  daylight  came  a  great  gap  in  the  middle 
showed  that  the  bridge  had  been  totally  wrecked. 

A  new  bridge  on  a  greatly  stronger  scale  and  much 
lower  in  height  was  shortly  erected  near  the  site  of 
the  old  one,  and  from  the  windows  of  the  railway 
carriages  travellers  can  still  see  portions  of  the  wreck. 

At  the  northern  end  of  the  Tay  bridge  is  Dundee, 
the  principal  town  of  Forfarshire  and  the  third  city 
of  Scotland,  with  a  population  of  160,000. 

Down  to  the  time  of  King  Robert  Bruce  it  was  the 
chief  seaport  and  most  important  town  in  the  king- 
dom. Tradition  says  that  here  Malcolm  Ceannmor 
Vol.  II.— 12  177 


178     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  KOMANT1C. 

erected  a  palace  for  his  Queen  Margaret,  and  that 
here  King  Edgar  died  in  1106.  It  was  at  Dundee 
that  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  brother  of  King 
William  the  Lion,  landed  on  his  return  from  the  Cru- 
sades.1 Edward  I.  was  in  Dundee  in  1296  and  in 
1303.  Wallace  was  at  school  here,  and  his  earliest 
exploit  against  the  English  was  the  killing  of  the  son 
of  the  Governor;  and  it  was  here  that  the  great 
Council  of  the  Clergy  acknowledged  Bruce  as  King 
in  1309.  The  town  was  constantly  taken  and  re- 
taken in  the  War  of  Independence. 

George  Wishart,  the  Reformer,  preached  in  Dun- 
dee, which  was  ever  after  a  stronghold  of  the  Re- 
formers, though  it  loyally  welcomed  Queen  Mary 
when  she  visited  it.  It  was  harried  by  Montrose  in 
1645,  lived  in  by  Charles  II.  in  1651  and  besieged 
and  taken  by  Monk  in  the  same  year,  with  great 
slaughter  of  the  garrison  and  inhabitants.  During  the 
Jacobite  rising  of  1715  it  was  held  for  the  Cheva- 
lier de  St.  George,  and  for  Prince  Charlie  for  five 
months  in  1745—J46. 

The  town  once  contained  nineteen  ancient  churches, 
a  Greyfriars,  a  Blackfriars,  and  a  Redfriars  Monas- 
tery, and  a  Franciscan  Nunnery. 

Of  all  these  historical  buildings  little  remains.  The 
earliest  building  is  the  church,  said  traditionally  to 
have  been  erected  by  the  Earl  of  Huntingdon  (1189),  in 

1  This  prince  is  the  original  of  the  Knight  of  the  Leopard,  Sir 
Kenneth  of  Scotland,  in  Scott's  novel,  The  Talisman. 


FOKFAR  OK  ANGUS. 


179 


gratitude  for  preservation  from  shipwreck.  The  west 
tower,  commonly  called  St.  Mary's  Tower  or  the  Old 
Steeple,  was  built  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. It  forms  a  striking  and  conspicuous  feature  in 
all  views  of  the  town,  being  in  fact  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  pieces  of  architecture  in  Scotland. 

No  other  ancient  building  has  survived  the  repeated 
sieges  and  sackings  and  burnings  of  Dundee.  It  is 
even  doubtful  if  the  Cowgate  Port,  whose  inscription 
states  that  Wishart  preached  there  during  the  plague 
in  1545,  was  in  existence  at  that  time. 

To  the  outer  world  the  historical  memories  of  the 
place  have  been  all  but  lost,  and  Dundee  is  thought  of 
but  as  the  city  of  marmalade.  Still  that  admirable 
confection  is  but  a  very  small  part  in  the  city's  pros- 
perity. Dundee  is  a  great  textile  centre,  the  seat  of 
the  manufacture  of  jute,  and  until  lately  it  was  in 
Dundee  that  the  sails  for  the  British  navy  and  for 
a  large  proportion  of  the  United  States  navy  were 
made.  It  is  a  great  seaport  and  the  headquarters  in 
Great  Britain  of  the  whale  and  seal-fishing  industries. 
Lately  it  has  become  a  University  City,  whose  College, 
affiliated  with  the  ancient  University  of  St.  Andrews, 
is  fully  equipped  as  a  school  of  science  and  medicine. 

Three  miles  to  the  north  of  Dundee  are  the  lands 
of  Claverhouse,  once  the  property  of  the  arch  enemy 
of  the  Covenanters.  Of  the  original  mansion  of  the 
Grahams  not  a  single  trace  remains,  but  on  the  sup- 
posed site  of  the  ancient  house  a  quasi-Gothic,  castel- 


180     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  KOM ANTIC. 

lated  erection  was  built  in  1850,  as  a  monument  to 
the  memory  of  John  Graham  of  Claverhouse. 

Near  the  town  of  Forfar  is  Glamis  Castle,  of  very 
ancient  origin,  and  possessing  a  classic  interest  as  the 
scene  of  the  murder  of  King  Duncan  in  "  Macbeth." 
Tradition  has  it  that  Malcolm  II.,  Duncan's  (and 
Macbeth's)  grandfather,  was  murdered  at  Glamis, 
where  in  fact  he  did  die  in  1034,  though  from  natural 
causes. 

Glamis  is  the  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Strathmore,  a 
descendant  of  one  John  Lyon,  to  whom  Robert  II. 
granted  it  in  1372. 

The  Castle  has  been  many  times  remodeled,  and  in 
its  present  aspect  resembles  the  great  seventeenth  cen- 
tury chateaux  of  France.  In  the  centre  rises  a  lofty 
square  tower,  from  which  extend  three  great  wings — 
an  arrangement  that  isolates  the  various  suites  of 
apartments.  Scott  describes  a  night  passed  by  him  at 
Glamis  in  his  youth.  "  I  was  conducted  to  my  apart- 
ment in  a  distant  corner  of  the  building,  and  I  must 
own  that,  as  I  heard  door  after  door  shut,  after  my 
conductor  had  retired,  I  began  to  consider  myself  too 
far  from  the  living,  and  somewhat  too  near  the  dead. 
We  had  passed  through  the  1  King's  Room '  .  .  . 
said  by  tradition  to  be  the  spot  of  Malcolm's  mur- 
der. ...  In  spite  of  the  truth  of  history,  the 
whole  night  scene  in  Macbeth's  Castle  rushed  at 
once  upon  my  mind,  and  struck  my  imagination 
more  forcibly  than  even  when  I  have  seen  its  terrors 


Glamis  Castle 


FOEFAK  OR  ANGUS. 


181 


represented  by  the  late  John  Kemble  and  his  inimita- 
ble sister." 

The  sixth  Lord  Glamis  married  the  unfortunate 
Janet  Douglas,  sister  of  the  sixth  Earl  of  Angus,  who 
was  banished  in  the  reign  of  James  V.  This  lady 
was  unjustly  accused  of  conspiring  to  poison  the  King, 
was  convicted  by  an  assize  in  Edinburgh  and  was 
burned  on  the  Castle  Hill  in  1537.  Her  second 
husband,  Archibald  Campbell,  son  of  the  second  Earl 
of  Argyll,  perished  when  trying  to  escape  from  Edin- 
burgh Castle.  Her  two  sons  were  kept  in  prison  until 
the  death  of  the  King,  and  an  old  priest,  a  relative 
of  the  family,  who  was  accused  of  being  concerned  in 
the  so-called  conspiracy,  was  also  executed. 

A  singular  custom  once  prevailed  in  the  family  of 
the  Earls  of  Strathmore.  There  was  at  Glamis  Castle  a 
secret  chamber,  the  entrance  to  which  was  never  known 
to  more  than  three  persons  at  one  time — the  Earl,  his 
heir  apparent  and  one  other  selected  by  them.  What 
occurred  in  this  secret  chamber  was  never  divulged,  but 
upon  the  Glamis  mystery  Mrs.  Oliphant  founded  her 
very  striking  tale,  The  Wizard's  Son. 

A  massive  silver  beaker,  shaped  like  a  lion,  in  allu- 
sion to  the  family  name  and  holding  about  a  pint,  is 
preserved  at  Glamis.  The  guest  to  whom  this  cup  is 
handed  is  expected  to  drain  it  to  the  Earl's  health. 
In  a  note  to  Waverley,  Scott  says  :  "  The  author  ought 
perhaps  to  be  ashamed  of  recording  that  he  has  had 
the  honor  of  swallowing  the  contents  of  the  Lion,  and 


182     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

the  recollection  of  the  feat  served  to  suggest  the  story 
of  the  '  Bear  of  Bradwardine.' " 

At  Arbroath,  formerly  Aberbrothwick  (the  Fairport 
of  The  Antiquary),  are  the  imposing  remains  of  Wil- 
liam the  Lion's  great  Abbey,  built  between  1176  and 
1233.  The  King  began  it  soon  after  his  release  from 
Falaise,  in  Normandy,  where  the  English  had  kept 
him  prisoner  after  the  defeat  at  Alnwick.  He  dedi- 
cated his  new  foundation  in  1178  to  SS.  Mary  and 
Thomas  a  Becket — the  latter  having  been  murdered 
eight  years  before  and  canonized  in  1173  ;  and  on  his 
own  death,  thirty-six  years  later,  he  was  buried  there 
before  the  high  altar.  To  the  abbot  of  his  new 
foundation  William  assigned  the  custody  of  the  holy 
banner  of  St.  Colomba — the  Brecbennach — with  a 
grant  of  certain  lands  for  its  maintenance. 

When  in  1815  the  Barons  of  the  Exchequer  took 
the  Abbey  buildings  in  charge  and  made  an  effort  to 
stop  the  progress  of  dilapidation  that  had  set  in,  the 
hewn  freestone  tomb  of  the  founder  was  discovered. 
Owing  to  the  nature  of  the  dark  red  "sandstone  used 
in  the  building,  its  carvings  and  mouldings  have  well 
nigh  disappeared,  and  it  has  suffered  cruelly  moreover 
at  the  hands  of  the  English,  of  the  .Reformers,  of 
thieves,  and  of  the  elements.  All  three  of  the  Bea- 
tons,  as  well  as  Gavin  Douglas,  were  at  one  time  or 
another  Abbots  of  Arbroath,  a  title  forever  immor- 
talized in  the  ballad  of  the  "  Inchcape  Bock."  This 
rock,  or  reef,  lies  in  the  German  Ocean,  about  twelve 


FOKFAK  OR  ANGUS. 


183 


miles  off  the  coast.  It  was  formerly  called  the  Scape, 
or  the  Inchcape,  but  an  old  tradition  concerning  a 
bell-buoy  having  been  popularized  by  Southey's  bal- 
lad, it  is  now  commonly  known  as  the  Bell  Rock. 
The  poem  tells  how  the  pious  Abbot  of  Aberbrothwick 
had  placed  that  bell  on  the  Inchcape  Rock  as  a  warn- 
ing to  mariners,  but  wicked  Sir  Ralph  the  Rover,  to 
"  plague  the  priest  of  Aberbrothwick/'  cut  it  loose, 
and  when  judgment  overtook  him  later  and  he  was 
himself  Avrecked  on  the  selfsame  reef — owing  to  the 
absence  of  the  warniug  bell,  as  his  ship  went  down 
he  kept  hearing  "  an  awful  dismal  sound  ...  as  if 
below,  with  the  Inchcape  bell,  the  devil  rang  his 
funeral  knell." 

Between  Arbroath  and  Lunan  Bay  are  a  number  of 
places  made  familiar  by  The  Antiquary — Auchmithie, 
the  "  Mussel  Crag  "  of  the  novel,  and  the  sheer  cliffs 
of  Red  Head,  where  Sir  Arthur  Wardour  and  his 
daughter  had  their  perilous  adventure. 

Ethie  House,  the  seat  of  the  Carnegies,  Earls  of 
Northesk,  was  a  favorite  abode  of  Cardinal  Beaton. 
Nay,  according  to  some,  it  still  is ;  for  "  at  a  certain 
hour  of  the  night,  a  sound  is  heard  resembling  the 
tramp  of  a  foot,  which  is  believed  to  be  the  Cardi- 
nal's, and  it  is  popularly  called  his  leg  walking  very 
deliberately  up  and  down  the  original  stone  stair, 
which  still  connects  the  ground-flat  with  the  second 
story  of  the  house."  1 

1  History  of  the  Carnegies. 


184     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOM ANTIC. 

Montrose,  a  prosperous  town  on  the  coast,  is  a  very 
ancient  seaport.  It  was  from  here  that  the  Good  Sir 
James  Douglas  set  out  on  his  last  mission  with  the 
heart  of  Robert  Bruce.  It  was  from  Montrose  too 
that  the  Chevalier  de  St.  George  and  Lord  Mar 
sneaked  away  to  France  after  the  failure  of  1715. 

Their  intention  had  been  kept  absolutely  secret,  and 
at  the  very  moment  when  the  two  were  noiselessly 
passing  out  by  the  garden  at  the  back,  to  embark  on 
a  ship  that  lay  awaiting  them,  a  guard  was  drawn  up 
in  front  of  the  house  where  the  Pretender  was  lodged, 
to  escort  him  forward  on  the  march  with  the  army. 

Montrose  was  captured  by  the  Jacobite  army  in 
1745,  and  was  held  for  Prince  Charlie  from  July  to 
the  following  February.  It  was  here  that  Lord  John 
Drummond  landed  in  October  with  a  small  reinforce- 
ment of  French  auxiliaries,  chiefly  Scotsmen  and  Irish 
in  the  French  service.  At  Montrose  the  Jacobites  had 
their  only  naval  success :  they  captured  the  sloop 
Hazard,  of  sixteen  guns  and  eighty  men,  in  the  Mon- 
trose basin.  The  vessel  was  subsequently  lost  at 
Tongue  in  Sutherland. 

After  the  retreat  of  the  Jacobites  in  1746  Montrose 
was  occupied  by  a  Government  garrison;  yet  in  spite 
of  this,  on  the  Chevalier's  birthday,  June  10,  the 
Jacobite  ladies  showed  themselves  dressed  gaily  in 
white,  and  the  boys  lit  bonfires  in  honor  of  the  day. 
The  humane  commandant  took  no  notice,  but  the 
savage  Duke  of  Cumberland,  hearing  of  his  leniency, 


FORFAR  OR  ANGUS. 


185 


had  him  cashiered  from  the  army,  and  he  caused  some 
of  the  children  to  be  publicly  whipped,  among  others, 
it  is  said,  Thomas  Coutts,  afterwards  the  great  London 
banker,  the  grandfather  of  the  present  Lady  Burdett- 
Coutts. 

There  are  two  ecclesiastical  memories  of  Montrose 
not  without  interest.  George  Wishart,  the  Reforming 
martyr,  preached  and  taught  there,  and  there  James 
VI.  attended  the  General  Assembly  of  1600  and  tried 
unsuccessfully  to  force  Episcopacy  on  the  Kirk  of 
Scotland.  He  was  strenuously  resisted  by  Andrew 
Melville,  the  principal  of  St.  Andrew's  University; 
and  when  the  offended  monarch  remonstrated  with 
him  in  private,  the  stout-hearted  Presbyterian  boldly 
replied :  "  Sir,  take  you  this  head  and  gar  (make)  cut 
it  off  gif  ye  will ;  ye  shall  sooner  get  it,  or  I  betray 
the  cause  of  Christ." 

Dr.  Johnson,  who  did  not  love  Presbyterians, 
visited  Montrose  in  1773  and  attended  the  Episcopal 
Church  there,  "clean  to  a  degree  unknown  in  any 
other  part  of  Scotland."  He  was  delighted  and  gave 
a  shilling  to  the  clerk,  saying :  "  He  belongs  to  an 
honest  church."  Boswell  reminded  him  that  Episco- 
pals  were  but  Dissenters  here  and  existed  only  on 
toleration.  "  Sir,"  said  Dr.  Johnson,  "  we  arc  here  as 
Christians  in  Turkey." 

To  the  west  of  the  Basin  of  Montrose,  in  the  parish 
of  Mary  ton,  is  Old  Montrose,  the  seat  of  the  Grahams 
Earls  of  Montrose,  of  which  a  mere  corner  remains. 


186      SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 

Here  in  1612  the  great  Marquis  was  born.  The 
career  of  this  Cavalier  leader  is  a  strange  historical 
paradox :  "  The  victorious  Covenanting  leader  of  the 
Bridge  of  Dee  is  the  champion  of  the  King  unto 
death ;  the  friend  of  Archbishop  Spottiswoode  is  a 
ruling  elder  in  the  Glasgow  Assembly  which  excom- 
municates him."  Young  Montrose  was  a  diligent 
student  at  St.  Andrews,  and  afterwards  went  to  travel 
abroad,  returning  in  1637  in  the  very  thick  of  the 
troubles  about  Laud's  service  book.  He  at  once 
enthusiastically  embraced  the  Presbyterian  cause,  and 
was  one  of  the  four  noblemen  who  drew  up  the 
National  Covenant.  He  was  given  command  of  a 
Covenanting  force,  sent  to  Aberdeen,  and  on  three 
different  occasions  in  1638-39  he  overran  it.  On  the 
second  occasion  he  had  to  retreat  before  the  Gordons 
under  Lord  Aboyne,  King  Charles'  lieutenant,  but 
having  defeated  them  near  Stonehaven,  and  four 
days  later  at  Bridge  of  Dee,  he  once  more  had  posses- 
sion of  Aberdeen  in  the  Covenanting  interest.  To  the 
surprise  of  the  Episcopalian  inhabitants  he  contented 
himself  chiefly  with  reproaches  and  did  little  damage. 
In  the  same  year  he  was  sent  as  an  envoy  to  Charles  I. 
at  Berwick,  where  he  was  rather  coldly  received  by 
the  King,  yet  it  was  from  the  time  of  this  interview 
that  his  opponents  dated  his  apostacy  from  the  Cove- 
nanting cause.  He  always  denied  apostacy,  maintain- 
ing that  he  adhered  to  the  "  National "  Covenant,  a 
loyal  document ;  but  he  would  have  nothing  to  do 


FORFAR  OR  ANGUS. 


187 


with  the  "Solemn  League  and  Covenant "  which 
superseded  it. 

Iu  1640  he  was  still  with  the  Covenanting  army 
and  personally  led  it  into  England,  himself  being  the 
first  to  cross  the  Tweed.  In  1641  he  was  discovered 
to  be  secretly  in  communication  with  the  King,  and 
was  arraigned  and  imprisoned  for  "  corresponding  with 
the  enemy."  He  retorted  that  no  loyal  Covenanter 
could  call  the  King  his  enemy,  and  he  was  released 
with  a  caution.  In  1642  the  Covenanters  offered  to 
make  him  lieutenant-general  of  their  army,  but  he 
declined,  by  this  time  apparently  disgusted  with  them 
and  particularly  with  their  leader,  the  Marquis  of 
Argyll. 

Many  writers  have  tried  to  account  for  Montrose's 
change,  but  the  simplest  reason  is  with  little  doubt 
also  the  real  one,  and  is  as  old  as  chivalry  itself. 
Montrose's  nature  was  essentially  chivalrous.  When 
he  saw  his  church  and  his  country  assailed  by  the 
whole  might  of  the  English  Court  and  the  English 
Archbishop,  he  rushed  enthusiastically  to  their  sup- 
port. When  in  the  course  of  events  the  tables  turned 
and  the  King  and  Queen  were  bested  by  the  victorious 
Covenanters,  he  rallied  to  the  weaker  side  and  fought 
for  it  to  the  end. 

Montrose  went  to  England  in  1642;  the  following 
February  he  met  Queen  Henrietta  Maria  at  York  and 
from  that  time  he  became  a  zealous  Cavalier.  It  is 
thought  that  with  the  Queen  he  concocted  his  great 


188     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROM  ANTIC. 


scheme  of  raising  a  Highland  army  in  the  King's 
interests.  In  1644  he  left  Oxford  in  the  disguise  of 
a  groom  and  penetrated  to  Blair  Atholl.1  There 
he  raised  the  western  clans  against  the  Covenant- 
ers and  their  chief  Argyll,  and  was  joined  by  a  body 
of  Irish  under  Macdonald,  better  known  by  his  nick- 
name Colkitto,  and  then  began  his  brilliant  campaign. 
On  September  1  he  gained  a  victory  over  Lord  Elcho 
at  Tipperniuir,  near  Perth.  The  same  month  he  beat 
Lord  Burleigh  at  Aberdeen  and  gave  over  the  town, 
which  he  himself  had  coerced  into  the  Covenant,  to 
four  days7  pillage.  Threatened  by  a  superior  force 
under  Argyll,  he  retreated  to  the  wilds  of  Badenoch 
in  Inverness-shire.  After  several  incursions  into 
Moray  and  Aberdeenshire  he  made  a  winter  campaign 
in  the  Highlands.  He  defeated  Argyll  at  Inverlochy 
in  February.  Then  came  more  marches.  He  seized 
and  pillaged  Dundee  in  April.  In  May  he  defeated 
General  Hurry  at  Auldearn,  near  Nairn.  In  July  he 
beat  the  Covenanter  commander-in-chief  Baillie  (of  the 
Lamington  family)  at  Alford  in  Aberdeenshire.  In 
August  he  defeated  the  same  general  in  a  great  battle 
at  Kilsyth,  in  which  6000  Covenanters  were  killed. 
Scotland  then  seemed  at  his  feet,  but  his  Highland 
army  melted  away  to  take  their  booty  to  their  homes. 
Keeping  his  Lowlanders  together,  he  went  to  the  Bor- 
ders, where  in  September,  1645,  he  was  surprised  at 

1  This  is  the  incident  referred  to  in  the  opening  chapters  of  Scott's 
novel  A  Legend  of  Montrose. 


FORFAR  OR  ANGUS. 


189 


Philiphaugh  by  General  David  Leslie,  a  veteran  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  was  completely  defeated 
and  his  army  dispersed.  For  a  time  he  went  about 
Scotland  endeavoring  to  raise  a  new  army,  but  with 
little  success,  and  he  was  obliged  to  leave  the 
country  in  September,  1646.  He  sailed  to  Norway, 
and  for  some  years  he  wandered  about  the  Conti- 
nent in  Norway,  France,  Germany  and  Holland. 
Montrose  was  at  Brussels  when  the  news  of  the  execu- 
tion of  Charles  I.  (January,  1649)  reached  him,  and  hear- 
ing of  it  he  swooned  away.  On  recovering  he  "  swore 
before  God,  angels  and  men  to  dedicate  the  remainder 
of  his  life  to  the  avenging  the  death  of  the  martyr." 

In  a  poem  written  at  this  time  he  declares  in  his 
closing  lines : 

"  I'll  sing  thy  obsequies  with  trumpet  sounds, 
And  write  thy  epitaph  with  blood  and  wounds." 

In  1650  he  gathered  a  small  force  at  Gottenburgh 
to  invade  Scotland  and  landed  in  Orkney,  but  a  great 
part  of  his  little  army  was  shipwrecked  crossing 
from  Sweden.  Nobody  would  join  him,  and  in 
April,  1650,  he  was  completely  defeated  at  Carbisdale, 
near  Invercharron,  in  Ross-shire.  Montrose  fled  to 
Sutherland,  where  lie  was  captured  and  handed  over 
to  the  Covenanters  by  a  Highland  chieftain,  Macleod 
of  Assynt.  He  was  removed  to  Edinburgh,  and 
there  tried,  condemned  and  executed  on  May  21, 
1650.    This  great  Cavalier  was  not  only  a  soldier, 


190     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


but  he  was  also  a  poet  of  no  mean  order.  One  of  his 
lyrics,  beginning,  "  My  dear  and  only  love,  I  pray/' 
has  become  almost  a  classic.  The  best-known  lines 
are : 

"  He  either  fears  his  fate  too  much, 
Or  his  deserts  are  small, 
Who  dares  not  put  it  to  the  touch, 
To  gain  or  lose  it  all." 

Continuing  up  the  coast,  the  ruined,  but  once  im- 
pregnable Castle  of  Dunnottar  stands  on  an  enormous 
mass  of  rock,  rising  precipitously  from  the  sea,  about 
a  mile  and  a  half  below  Stonehaven.  This  rock  is 
almost  surrounded  by  water,  the  only  approach  to  the 
Castle  being  by  a  narrow  path  which  leads  down  the 
steep  shore,  around  the  foot  of  the  rock,  and  then  by 
steps  up  to  the  only  gateway ;  and  this  approach  is 
commanded  by  two  outworks.  Such  was  the  nature 
of  the  spot  selected  by  the  Scots  Estates  and  Privy 
Council  during  the  Cromwell  invasion  in  June,  1650, 
to  be  the  repository  of  the  "  Honors  of  Scotland,"  i.  e., 
the  "Regalia,"  consisting  of  the  crown,  sword  and 
sceptre.  Dunnottar  was  the  property  of  the  Earls 
Marischal  (hereditary  keepers  of  the  Regalia  during 
the  sittings  of  Parliament),  but  the  head  of  the 
house,  after  concealing  the  precious  charge,  and  pro- 
visioning and  garrisoning  the  Castle,  joined  the 
Royal  forces,  leaving  George  Ogilvie  of  Barras  in 
command.  On  August  28  the  Earl  was  made  pris- 
oner by  the  English,  but  contrived  to  send  a  mes- 
sage, and  the  key  to  the  hiding-place  (which  he  kept 


Marquis  of  Montrose 


KINCAEDINE  OR  THE  MEARNS.  191 


always  about  him)  to  his  mother.  The  Dowager 
Countess  at  once  repaired  to  Dunnottar,  but  had 
hardly  more  than  arrived  when  the  English,  under 
Lambert,  laid  siege  to  the  Castle.  John  Keith,  the 
Earl's  brother,  succeeded  in  slipping  through  the 
English  lines  in  September  with  an  appeal  from  the 
commander  that  the  place  might  be  relieved  from 
the  sea.  This  was  not  done,  and  when  the  provi- 
sions began  to  fail  and  indications  of  disaffection  to 
appear  among  the  garrison  it  was  thought  high  time 
to  take  steps  for  the  further  safety  of  the  Honors. 
Mrs.  Ogilvie  then  hit  upon  a  plan  by  which  the  wife 
of  Mr.  Grainger,  minister  of  KinnefF,  having  ob- 
tained permission  from  the  English  commander  for 
herself  and  her  maid  to  pay  a  visit  to  her  friends 
in  the  Castle,  successfully  carried  the  Honors  off. 
Mrs.  Grainger,  who  had  the  crown  in  her  lap,  was 
considerably  embarrassed  by  the  gallantry  of  the 
English  officer,  who  would  not  only  assist  her  to 
mount  her  horse,  but  himself  saw  her  safely  through 
the  lines.1  Behind  came  the  maid,  with  the  sword 
and  the  sceptre  wrapped  about  with  some  flax  she 
was  carrying  home  from  Stonehaven,  in  such  a  fashion 
as  to  resemble  a  sort  of  distaff.  On  reaching  the 
manse  the  Honors  were  first  hidden  in  the  bottom  of 
a  bed,  and  then  under  the  flag  flooring  of  the  church.2 

1  This  part  of  the  story  is  only  traditional. 

2  Kinneff  Church  is  eight  miles  south  of  Stonehaven.  The  place 
where  the  Honors  were  hidden  is  still  shown. 


192     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

The  Dowager  Countess  Marischal  had  given  the 
key  to  Ogilvie,  with  injunctions  to  remove  the 
Honors,  but  neither  she  nor  he  knew  at  the  time 
the  secret  of  their  new  hiding-place.  It  was  only 
when,  some  fifteen  months  later,  Mrs.  Ogilvie  found 
herself  dying  that  she  told  her  husband  the  secret. 

On  the  24th  of  May  the  Castle  was  surrendered, 
of  necessity,  but  on  honorable  terms,  and  great  was 
the  chagrin  of  the  English  to  find  the  Honors  gone. 
Every  possible  step  was  taken  to  discover  their  where- 
abouts, but  the  Dowager  Countess  stoutly  declared 
that  her  son,  John  Keith,  had  carried  them  to  France 
and  delivered  them  to  the  King ;  and  he  obtained  a 
fictitious  receipt  from  Middleton  to  that  eifect.  Never- 
theless the  Ogilvies  were  put  in  prison,  and  the  search 
continued  for  some  time.  At  last,  with  the  Resto- 
ration, came  the  hour  when  the  Honors,  after  their 
eight  years'  burial,  should  have  been  brought  forth 
in  triumph.  But  unfortunately  the  persons  who  had 
kept  the  secret  so  faithfully  now  fell  a-quarreling  as 
to  which  among  them  deserved  the  greatest  amount 
of  credit  and  reward  ;  while  Mr.  Grainger  refused  to 
give  them  up  to  any  one  but  Ogilvie,  from  whom  he 
had  received  them.  At  last  they  were  delivered  to 
the  Earl  Marischal,  and  the  King  conferred  re- 
wards on  all  concerned — to  Mrs.  Grainger  two  thou- 
sand marks  Scots ;  to  Ogilvie  a  baronetcy  and  an 
addition  to  his  arms;  while  John  Keith,  who  really 
seems  to  have  done  nothing  at  all,  was  made  Knight 


ABERDEEN. 


193 


Marischal  of  Scotland,  with  a  pension  of  four  hun- 
dred pounds,  and  later  was  further  made  Earl  of 
Kintore.  When  Ogilvie  reopened  the  quarrel  in  1701 
he  got  nothing  but  fines  and  imprisonment. 

The  cellar  in  Dunnottar  Castle  called  the  Whigs' 
Vault  is  where  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  Cov- 
enanters, both  men  and  women,  taken  in  the  year 
1685  in  the  West,  were  confined  for  three  months. 
Nine  of  them  having  died,  a  party  of  twenty-five 
determined  to  try  to  escape.  The  attempt  ended 
miserably,  for  in  the  perilous  passage  from  the  window 
along  the  edge  of  the  precipice  two  were  killed,  while 
the  others,  being  retaken,  only  had  their  sufferings 
augmented  by  the  increased  severity  of  the  jailers. 

Aberdeen,  the  "Granite  City,"  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  towns  in  Scotland,  lies  between  the  mouths 
of  the  rivers  Don  and  Dee.  It  is  entirely  built  of 
white-grey  granite  mixed  with  mica,  which  in  sun- 
shine makes  it  glitter  like  a  city  of  fairy-land,  but  in 
dull  weather  has  a  cold,  grey,  chilling  effect.  This 
general  use  of  granite  for  building  purposes  gives  the 
town  a  look  of  great  solidity ;  it  appears  to  defy  the 
possible  action  of  time,  while  its  color  lends  to  even 
the  ancient  buildings  an  air  of  newness  and  cleanli- 
ness different  from  anything  else  in  Scotland. 

The  same  solidity  seems  to  extend  to  the  inhabit- 
ants, who  are  proverbial  for  energy  and  hard  level- 
headedness. Their  pronunciation  differs  from  that  of 
any  other  part  of  the  country  and  is  unintelligible 
Vol.  II.— 13 


194     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOM ANTIC. 

even  to  Scotsmen  of  the  South.  One  main  feature  of 
this  is  their  rendering  of  the  sound  of  the  long  o  and 
oo,  which  by  natives  of  Aberdeen  is  pronounced  as  if 
spelt  ee,  and  thus  "  Aberdeen  "  (that  is,  "  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Don  " )  came  at  a  very  early  period  to  be  spelled, 
as  it  had  always  been  pronounced,  "  Aberdeen."  In 
adjectival  form,  however,  the  old  spelling  has  been 
preserved — the  inhabitant  of  Aberdeen  is  an  "  Aber- 
donian."  Old  Aberdeen,  the  seat  of  the  ancient 
bishopric  and  the  university,  is  on  the  south  bank  of 
the  Don,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  beyond  the  newer 
city,  of  which  it  is  now  practically  a  suburb.  Aberdeen 
proper  or,  as  it  is  often  called,  "  New  Aberdeen,"  is 
the  prosperous  town  that  has  grown  up  on  the  north- 
ern bank  of  the  Dee,  on  a  site  where  a  former  town 
was  burned  down  by  the  English  under  Edward  III. 
in  1336. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  Aberdeen  was  a  sort  of 
capital  in  the  northeast,  a  centre  of  operations  for  the 
all-powerful  Earls  of  Huntly,  the  heads  of  the  Gor- 
dons, whose  chief  seat,  Huntly  Castle,  may  still  be 
seen,  ruined  but  majestic,  at  Strathbogie  in  the  north- 
east of  Aberdeenshire.  It  was  furnished  with  a  splen- 
dor that  threw  even  the  royal  palaces  into  the  shade. 

In  the  early  part  of  Queen  Mary's  reign  the  great 
and  growing  power  of  the  Gordons  had  reached 
a  point  that  was  felt  to  be  a  menace  to  the  safety  of 
the  State,  and  a  royal  progress  through  the  North  was 
determined  on. 


ABEKDEEN. 


195 


In  August,  1562,  Mary,  accompanied  by  her  half- 
brother,  the  Earl  of  Moray,  proceeded  in  state  to  the 
North,  with  the  evident  though  unavowed  object  of 
crushing  the  Gordons.  The  first  openly  hostile  act 
the  royal  party  met  with  was  the  refusal  of  the  (royal) 
Castle  of  Inverness,  of  which  Huntly  was  the  cus- 
todian, to  open  its  gates.  It  was  accordingly  laid 
siege  to  and  taken.  Then  followed  a  skirmish  at 
Corrichie,  about  eighteen  miles  west  of  Aberdeen. 
The  Gordons  were  defeated  and  the  Earl,  while 
leaving  the  field,  fell  from  his  horse  and  was  suffo- 
cated by  the  weight  of  his  armor.  Trivial  as  this 
affair  seems  to  read  of,  the  result  was  nothing  less 
than  the  downfall  of  the  house  of  Gordon  and  the 
break-up  of  their  vast  power  in  the  North.  The 
Earl's  body  was  taken  to  Edinburgh  that  the  sentence 
of  forfeiture1  might  be  duly  pronounced,  while  the 
Queen  and  Moray  proceeded  to  Aberdeen.  Here 
they  were  loyally  received  and  treated  to  a  succession 
of  plays  and  spectacles.  Among  the  latter  was  the 
public  execution  of  Sir  John  Gordon,  a  younger  son 
of  the  Earl  of  Huntly,  who  was  convicted  of  treason. 
He  was  madly  in  love  with  the  Queen,  who  is  said  to 
have  liked  him  well  enough,  but  who  nevertheless 
attended  his  execution  in  person. 

In  the  following  century  Aberdeen  was  a  Cavalier 

1  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Kirk>of-fields  House  was  partly 
furnished  with  articles  taken  from  Strathbogie  after  the  battle  of 
Corrichie. 


196      SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

stronghold  and  not  in  sympathy  with  the  Covenant. 
Montrose  in  his  Covenanting  days  thrice  made  de- 
scents upon  the  place,  endeavoring  to  compel  the 
people  to  submit,  his  ensign  then  bearing  the  words 
"  For  Religion,  the  Covenant  and  the  Country." 

It  was  on  one  of  these  occasions  that  the  two  par- 
ties, Royalists  and  Presbyterians,  adopted  distinguish- 
ing party  colors.  John  Spalding,  the  contemporary 
annalist  of  Aberdeen,  records  that  "  few  or  none  of 
the  haill  army  Avanted  (were  without)  ane  blew  ribbin 
hung  about  his  craig  (neck),  down  under  his  left  arme, 
which  they  called  the  6  Covenanters'  Ribbin.'  But 
the  Lord  Gordon  (second  Marquis  of  Huntly)  .  .  . 
had  ane  ribbin  when  he  was  dwelling  in  the  *toun  of 
ane  reid  flesh  cullor,  which  they  wore  in  their  hatts, 
and  called  it  the  '  Royall  Ribbin/  as  a  sign  of  their 
love  and  loyaltie  to  the  King." 

This  wearing  of  party  colors  was  the  cause  of  the 
slaughter  of  a  multitude  of  innocent  victims  in  Mon- 
trose's second  incursion,  a  slaughter  long  remembered 
in  the  district.  The  Cavalier  damsels  in  sheer  deri- 
sion decorated  every  dog  that  could  be  found  with  the 
blue  ribbon  of  the  Covenant.  The  dogs  after  their 
manner  congregated  in  the  streets  to  yelp  at  the  in- 
vaders. The  army  could  not  brook  the  insult  and 
every  dog  was  executed. 

By  1644  Aberdeen  had  yielded  and  subscribed  to 
the  Covenant,  but  now  again  comes  Montrose,  this 
time  on  the  Royal  side,  and,  after  meeting  and  scat- 


ABEEDEEN. 


197 


tering  the  townsmen  a  little  to  the  westward,  he  let 
loose  his  followers  on  the  devoted  town.  One  account 
says  of  the  slaughter  that  followed:  "These  cruel 
Irishes  (i.  e.,  Colkitto's  men),  seeing  a  man  well  clad, 
would  first  tyr  (strip)  him  and  save  the  clothes  un- 
spoiled, then  kill  the  man." 

The  Gordons,  who  uniformly  supported  the  Royal 
side  throughout  all  the  troubles  of  the  civil  wars,  had 
been  prominent  in  national  affairs  since  the  twelfth 
century.  The  name  "  Gay  Gordons "  was  early  ap- 
plied to  them  and  constantly  occurs  in  the  ballads, 
as  when  Lady  Jean  is  informed  in  the  ballad  of 
"  Glenlogie  "  :  "  He  is  of  the  Gay  Gordons  ;  his  name 
it  is  John."  Originally  the  Gordons  were  a  Border 
family,  holding  lands  in  the  Merse  of  Berwickshire, 
but,  having  borne  an  honorable  part  in  the  War  of 
Independence,  the  forfeited  lands  of  the  Duke  of 
Atholl  were  granted  to  Sir  John  de  Gordon  by 
Robert  II.  in  1376  and  the  family  removed  to  the 
Highlands,  where  their  domain  was  called  Huntly, 
the  name  under  which  they  were  later  ennobled. 

A  son  of  the  Earl  of  Huntly,  Sir  Adam  of  Auch- 
indoun,  was  eventually  pardoned  by  the  Queen  and 
lived  to  become  one  of  her  most  valiant  supporters, 
while  his  second  daughter  was  the  Lady  Jean  Gordon, 
whose  marriage  to  Both  well  was  first  so  warmly  advo- 
cated by  Mary,  and  later  annulled  through  her  influ- 
ence in  order  that  she  might  marry  him  herself. 

The  ballad  of  "Edom  o?  Gordon"  records  the 


198     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


savage  setting  fire  to  the  Castle  of  Towie,  on  the  Don, 
by  Captain  Car,  commanding  some  of  Gordon  of 
Auchindoun's  men.  In  the  civil  conflicts  waged  after 
the  assassination  of  the  Regent  Moray,  Aberdeenshire 
was  the  scene  of  many  encounters  between  the  Gor- 
dons, supporters  of  the  Queen  and  the  Forbeses,  who 
stood  for  the  Reformers.  In  November  1571,  Cap- 
tain Car,  or  Ker,  appeared  before  Towie,  and  in  the 
absence  of  the  laird,  Alexander  Forbes,  called  upon 
his  lady  to  surrender  the  Castle,  "which  was  obsti- 
nately refused  by  the  lady,  and  she  burst  forth  with 
certain  injurious  words whereupon  the  place  was 
fired  and  twenty-seven  persons,  including  women  and 
children,  were  burned  to  death. 

"  Oh,  was  na  it  a  pitie  o  yon  bonnie  Castell, 
That  was  biggit  wi  stane  and  lime ! 
But  far  raair  pity  o  Lady  Ann  Campbell, 
That  was  brunt  wi  her  bairns  nine." 

A  grandson  of  the  Cock  o?  the  North1  was  created 
first  Marquis  of  Huntly,  and  he  it  was  who  killed  the 

1  The  origin  of  the  nickname  "  Cock  o'  the  North  "  for  the  Earls 
of  Huntly  is  uncertain,  but  it  is  generally  ascribed  to  a  French 
nobleman  in  the  train  of  Queen  Mary  during  her  visit  to  Aberdeen- 
shire in  1562.  He  is.  said  to  have  suggested  to  the  Scottish  sove- 
reign that  Huntly's  power  was  too  dangerous  in  a  subject,  and  that 
"this  Cock  o'  the  North  should  have  his  wings  clipped."  The 
name  has  ever  since  been  applied  to  the  head  of  the  Gordons.  A 
march  bearing  the  name  is  one  of  the  best  known  of  bagpipe  airs, 
and  is  the  regimental  quickstep  of  the  distinguished  regiment  of 
Gordon  Highlanders. 


ABERDEEN. 


199 


Bonny  Earl  of  Moray  at  Donibristle.  His  son,  after 
loyally  serving  King  Charles  I.  and  holding  out  steadily 
against  the  Covenant,  was  excepted  from  pardon  in 
1647,  and  Middleton  and  Leslie  were  sent  to  the  North 
with  a  strong  force  to  capture  him.  After  a  long  and 
weary  chase  through  the  Highland  fastnesses,  in  the 
course  of  which  the  Gordon  Castles  in  Aberdeenshire 
were  demolished  and  the  garrisons  either  made  prisoners 
or  executed  on  the  spot,  the  chief  was  at  length  taken 
one  December  night  in  the  hilly  region  of  Strathdon, 
in  the  west  of  Aberdeenshire.  When  the  Gordons 
rose,  on  hearing  this  news,  Huntly  sent  word  to  them 
to  lay  down  their  arms,  declaring  that  fatigue  and  grief 
had  so  exhausted  him  that  he  was  no  longer  able  to 
support  the  life  of  a  fugitive  in  caves  and  on  moun- 
tain wilds.  On  the  2 2d  of  the  following  March  he 
was  beheaded  at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh.  His  grand- 
son, the  fourth  Marquis  of  Huntly,  was  made  Duke 
of  Gordon  by  Charles  II.  and  was  Governor  of 
Edinburgh  Castle  (1689)  when  Dundee  held  his  fa- 
mous interview  with  him  at  the  west  postern,  before 
going  North  to  raise  the  clans. 

His  son  Alexander  does  not  appear  to  have  suffered 
for  the  active  part  he  took  in  the  '15,  and  when  after 
his  death  his  widow,  who  was  a  daughter  of  the  cele- 
brated Earl  of  Peterborough,  proceeded  to  educate 
their  eleven  children  as  Protestants,  the  country  was 
so  gratified  that  a  pension  was  settled  upon  her  by 
Government.    This  was  withdrawn  however  in  con- 


200     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


sequence  of  her  causing  a  breakfast  to  be  prepared  for 
Prince  Charlie  at  the  gates  of  Preston  Hall,  her  house 
in  Midlothian,  when  the  Prince  was  marching  by  on 
his  way  to  the  South.  Truly  a  costly  meal,  since  it 
meant  the  loss  to  her  of  £1000  a  year.  Only  one  of 
her  sons,  Lewis  Gordon,  joined  the  Prince;  he  died 
in  France  a  few  years  later.  One  of  her  grand- 
sons was  the  mad  Lord  George  Gordon,  of  the 
London  "  No-Popery "  riots  of  1780,  described  by 
Dickens  in  Barnaby  Rudge. 

The  fourth  Duke  of  Gordon  married  the  fascinating 
and  brilliant  Lady  Jean  Maxwell,  of  whom  Robert 
Chambers  relates  that  she  was  once  seen  riding  a  sow 
up  the  High  Street  of  Edinburgh,  while  her  sister 
beat  the  animal  with  a  stick  to  make  it  go.  When 
her  son,  the  last  Duke  of  the  male  line,  raised  the 
Gordon  Highlanders  (the  Ninety-second)  in  1794  the 
Duchess  lent  him  serviceable  aid,  it  is  said,  by  hold- 
ing the  shilling  between  her  pretty  lips. 

To  return  to  Aberdeen.  The  fine  seventeenth-cen- 
tury cross  in  the  Market  Place  was  designed  and 
constructed  by  a  native  of  the  county.  In  its  twelve 
compartments  are  portraits  of  the  Stewart  kings,  and 
the  royal  and  burgh  arms. 

Marischal  College,  which  is  entered  from  Broad 
Street  through  an  archway,  was  founded  as  a  Uni- 
versity by  George  Keith,  fifth  Earl  Marischal,  in 
1593,  and  occupies  the  site  of  a  former  Franciscan 
Friary.    It  was  entirely  rebuilt,  in  the  usual  beau- 


ABERDEEN. 


201 


tiful  granite  of  the  district,  between  1836  and  1841. 
At  the  present  moment  the  buildings  are  being 
greatly  added  to  through  the  munificence  of  former 
graduates. 

Down  to  the  year  1860  Marischal  College  was  a 
complete  University,  but  in  that  year  it  was  incor- 
porated, along  with  the  older  King's  College  of  Old 
Aberdeen,  into  the  single  University  of  Aberdeen,  of 
which  Marischal  College  is  now  the  home  of  the 
medical,  scientific  and  legal  faculties. 

Number  64  Broad  Street  is  the  house  where  Byron 
lived  in  his  boyhood  with  his  mother.  She  was 
Catherine  Gordon,  the  sole  direct  descendant  of  the 
Gordons  of  Gight,  who  sprang  from  Jane,  a  daughter 
of  James  I.,  and  William  Gordon,  a  younger  son  of 
the  second  Earl  of  Huntly.  Her  estates  having  been 
seized  by  the  creditors  of  her  husband,  Captain  John 
Byron,  the  ancient  Castle  of  Gight  on  the  Ythan,  in 
North  Aberdeenshire,  was  sold  in  1787  to  Lord 
Aberdeen,  after  being  in  the  Gordon  family  for  over 
three  hundred  years. 

It  is  alleged  that  when  this  Byron  marriage  took 
place  the  herons,  which  from  time  immemorial  had 
occupied  a  large  tree  near  Gight,  migrated  in  a  body, 
thus  fulfilling  an  ancient  prophecy : 

"  When  the  heron  leaves  the  tree, 
The  Laird  o'Gight  shall  landless  be. 

Aberdeen  was  held  for  Prince  Charlie  from  Septem- 


202     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

ber,  1 745,  to  the  end  of  the  following  February.  It  was 
then  immediately  occupied  by  the  Duke  of  Cumberland 
and  his  army,  which  halted  here  for  six  weeks  preparing 
for  the  campaign  which  ended  at  Culloden  in  April. 

Between  1740  and  1750  large  numbers  of  young 
people,  both  male  and  female,  were  kidnapped  in  and 
about  Aberdeen  and  sent  as  slaves  to  America  to 
work  on  the  plantations.  Some  of  the  town  authorities 
were  engaged  in  this  business,  and  the  work-house 
and  Tollbooth  were  both  used  as  places  of  detention 
where  victims  were  shut  up  to  await  transportation 
over  seas.  There  seems  to  have  been  no  pretence  even 
at  concealment.  Kidnapping  parties  openly  patrolled 
the  streets,  and  the  relatives  of  the  victims  are  de- 
scribed as  crowding  around  the  places  where  they 
were  shut  up,  weeping  and  lamenting  and  bestowing 
their  farewell  blessings.  This  trade  flourished  for  six 
years  before  it  was  finally  put  a  stop  to. 

Far  different  in  character  is  another  association  that 
will  always  link  Aberdeen  with  America.  It  was 
here  that  on  14th  November,  1784,  the  Scottish 
Bishops  Kilgore  (primus),  Petrie  and  Skinner  conse- 
crated Samuel  Seabury  first  American  Bishop  (of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut),  who  for  sixteen 
months  had  been  endeavoring  to  get  consecration  in 
London  at  the  hands  of  the  English  Bishops.  The 
fifth  article  of  the  "  Concordate,"  drawn  up  imme- 
diately after,  is  a  recommendation  to  the  American 
Church  to  adopt  the  Scottish  form  for  the  Communion 


ABERDEEN. 


203 


Office  rather  than  that  in  use  in  England.  This 
recommendation  was  followed,  and  accounts  for  the 
differences  seen  to-day  between  the  English  and  Amer- 
ican Offices.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  Scottish 
Church  appears  now  commonly  to  have  abandoned  its 
own  ancient  office,  and  to  have  adopted  that  of  the 
English  Prayer  Book  in  its  stead. 

In  old  Aberdeen,  on  the  River  Don,  is  St.  Machar's, 
the  Cathedral  church  of  a  very  ancient  Bishopric. 
The  oldest  existing  parts  are  the  two  red  freestone 
piers  built  in  1370  to  .support  a  central  tower  which, 
with  all  the  rest  of  the  building  of  that  date,  has  now 
disappeared.  The  later  edifice  that  replaced  it  in  the 
fifteenth  century  is  said  to  be  the  only  granite  cathedral 
in  the  world.  Its  oak  ceiling  with  colored  heraldic 
designs  was  put  in  by  Bishop  Gavin  Dunbar  (1518-32). 

"  The  west  front  of  St.  Machar's  is  entirely  built 
with  granite,  except  the  spires,  and  is  one  of  the  most 
impressive  and  imposing  structures  in  Scotland.  It  is 
extremely  plain,  not  a  single  scrap  of  carving  being 
visible  anywhere,  and  most  of  the  openings  are  of  the 
simplest  kind.  This  front  is  a  veritable  piece  of  Doric 
work,  depending  for  its  effect  on  its  just  proportion 
and  the  mass  of  its  granite  masonry.  .  .  .  Above 
this  (west)  doorway  is  one  of  the  most  striking  features 
of  the  composition,  viz. :  the  seven  lofty  narrow  win- 
doAVS,  about  twenty-six  feet  in  height,  and  each 
crowned  with  a  round  and  cusped  arch."1 

1  MacGibbon  and  Ross,  Ecclesiastical  Arch,  of  Scotland. 


204     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

The  Cathedral  was  hardly  more  than  well  com* 
pleted  when  a  rabble  of  image-breakers  attacked  it 
(1560),  cast  down  the  altars  and  destroyed  the  choir. 
The  nave  is  still  entire  and  is  used  as  a  parish  church, 
but  the  central  tower  fell  in  1688,  carrying  the  tran- 
septs with  it,  while  the  carved  woodwork  of  the  inte- 
rior, as  well  as  a  number  of  interesting  tombs,  were 
destroyed  either  wholly  or  in  part  in  the  course  of  vari- 
ous attacks  by  the  Reformers.  Among  the  tombs,  that 
of  Gavin  Dunbar  may  still  be  identified  in  the  south  tran- 
sept built  by  him,  and  another,  said  to  be  the  tomb  of  the 
poet  John  Barbour,  built  into  the  south  wall  of  the  nave. 
The  Bishops'  Palace,  the  Deanery  and  the  Hospital, 
which  once  stood  near  the  cathedral  have  all  disappeared. 

King's  College,  the  older  part  of  the  University  of 
Aberdeen,  was  founded  in  1495  by  Bishop  Elphin- 
stone.  A  large  part  of  the  early  sixteenth  century 
building,  incorporated  into  later  additions,  is  still 
standing  about  half  a  mile  south  of  the  Cathedral. 
Of  the  three  original  towers  one  only  (rebuilt  in  the 
seventeenth  century)  has  survived.  It  is  surmounted 
by  a  lantern  and  crown  that  suggest  those  of  St. 
Giles',  Edinburgh.  The  choir  of  the  former  college 
church  now  serves  as  a  chapel,  and  contains  some  very 
beautiful  carved  black  oak  stalls  and  screens.  In  the 
centre  is  the  mutilated  tomb  of  the  founder,  Bishop 
Elphinstone ;  and  Hector  Boece,  the  historian,  also 
has  a  memorial  tablet  there.  What  was  formerly  the 
nave  is  now  the  college  library. 


ABERDEEN. 


205 


The  "  Auld  Brig  o'  Balgounie "  is  a  single  Gothic 
arch  thrown  over  the  Don  about  half  a  mile  above  Old 
Aberdeen.  It  was  built  in  1320  either  by  Bishop 
Cheyne  or  possibly  by  King  Robert  Bruce.  Byron 
notes  a  prophecy  concerning  it  in  Don  Juan : 

"  As  '  Auld  Lang  Syne '  brings  Scotland,  one  and  all, 

Scotch  plaids,  Scotch  snoods,  the  blue  hills  and  clear  streams, 
The  Dee,  the  Don,  Balgounie's  Brig's  black  wall, 

All  my  boy  feelings,  all  my  gentler  dreams 
Of  what  I  there  dreamt,  clothed  in  their  own  pall, 

Like  Banquo's  offspring ;  floating  past  me  seems 
My  childhood  in  this  childishness  of  mine; 

I  care  not — 'tis  a  glimpse  of  '  Auld  Lang  Syne.' " 

He  says  in  a  note  "  The  Brig  of  Don  near  the  '  auld 
town '  of  Aberdeen,  with  its  one  arch  and  its  black 
deep  salmon  stream  below,  is  in  my  memory  as  yester- 
day. I  still  remember,  though  perhaps  I  may  mis- 
quote the  awful  proverb  which  made  me  pause  to 
cross  it,  and  yet  lean  over  it  with  a  childish  delight, 
being  an  only  son,  at  least  by  the  mother's  side.  The 
saying  as  recollected  by  me  was  this,  but  I  have  never 
heard  or  seen  it  since  I  was  nine  years  of  age : 

"  '  Brig  of  Balgounie,  black's  your  wa\ 
Wi  a  wife's  ae  son,  and  a  mear's  ae  foal, 
Down  ye  shall  fa ' ! '  " 

Following  the  line  of  the  Decside  Railway  one 
passes  about  ten  miles  beyond  Aberdeen,  within  a 
mile  or  so  of  Drum  Castle,  a  property  which  has  been 
in  the  Irvine  family  since  the  time  (1323)  of  William 


206     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

de  Irvine,  secretary  and  armor-bearer  to  King  Robert 
Bruce,  and  it  may  have  been  he  who  built  the  still 
existing  keep.  The  dwelling  attached  to  this  tower 
dates  from  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Alexander  Irvine,  the  Laird  of  Drum,  in  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century  married  for  his  second  wife 
Peggy  Coutts,  daughter  of  a  shepherd.  In  answer  to 
the  reproaches  of  his  family  lie  declared  that  his  first 
wife  had  been  so  well  born  (she  was  a  daughter  of 
George,  second  Marquis  of  Huntly,  and  a  niece  of 
the  Marquis  of  Argyll)  that  he  "  durst  not  come  in 
her  presence  but  with  my  hat  on  my  knee."  The 
second  marriage  forms  the  theme  of  "  The  Laird  o' 
Drum/'  a  popular  ballad  in  the  North,  written  down 
in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

About  eighteen  miles  further  on  (near  Lumphanan) 
is  Perk  Hill,  with  Macbeth's  Cairn,  supposed  to  mark 
the  spot  where  he  wras  slain  on  August  15,  1057,  by 
Malcolm  III. — Ceannmor — son  of  Duncan  I. 

At  Aboyne  is  the  Castle — greatly  altered  and  added 
to  from  time  to  time — of  the  Earls  of  Aboyne,  now 
of  the  Marquis  of  Huntly,  the  present  head  of  the  Gor- 
dons. The  oldest  existing  part  was  built  by  Charles, 
first  Earl  of  Aboyne,  a  younger  son  of  the  second  Mar- 
quis of  Huntly  and  the  Lord  Aboyne  of  the  ballad.1 

1  Peggy  Irvine  makes  great  stir  and  preparation  to  receive  her 
lover,  Lord  Aboyne,  back  from  London ;  he  arrives,  asks  her  to 
kiss  him  and  in  the  same  breath  tells  her  he  is  on  the  point  of 
marrying  some  one  else  in  London.    A  quarrel  ensues,  he  rides 


Brig:  of  Balgownie,  Aberdeen 


ABERDEEN. 


207 


It  was  at  Aboyne  Castle  that,  on  September  6, 
1715,  the  Jacobite  nobles,  chiefs  and  gentry,  assembled 
to  meet  the  Earl  of  Mar  preparatory  to  raising  the 
standard  of  the  Chevalier  and  proclaiming  "  King 
James  VIII."  at  Braemar,  some  twenty  miles  higher 
up  the  Dee. 

About  six  or  eight  miles  beyond  Aboyne  the  char- 
acter of  the  country  changes,  and  before  reaching 
Ballater  the  road  has  entered  the  Highlands.  Bal- 
moral, Queen  Victoria's  favorite  Highland  residence, 
is  on  the  Dee,  eight  miles  above  Ballater.  The  Prince 
Consort  bought  the  estate  from  the  Earl  of  Fife  in 
1852,  and  the  house  was  begun  in  the  following  year. 

Abergeldie,  a  little  further  down  the  Dee,  is  where 
the  present  King  used  to  stay  when  he  visited  the 
Highlands,  and  on  the  other  bank  of  the  Dee  is 
Crathie  Church,  where  the  royal  family  attend  service. 

From  Invercauld,  the  seat  of  the  chief  of  Clan 
Farquharson,  the  Earl  of  Mar  issued  the  call  to  the 
Highlanders  to  join  in  the  Rising  of  the  '15,  and  from 
thence  went  forth  the  "  fiery  cross  "  to  rouse  the  clans. 
It  stands  above  the  left  bank  of  the  Dee,  in  Braemar 
and  Crathie  parish,  and  commands  a  wonderful  view 
of  the  Deeside  Highlands.    How  wild  is  this  district 

away  and  the  lady  dies  of  a  broken  heart.  Lord  Aboyne  incon- 
sistently 

"  Gave  such  a  rap  on  the  table  where  he  sat, 

It  made  all  the  room  for  to  tremble : 
1 1  would  rather  I  had  lost  all  the  rents  of  Aboyne 
Than  have  lost  my  pretty  Peggy  Irvine.'  " 


208     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 


of  Braemar  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  there 
are  but  two  roads,  one  on  the  east  and  one  on  the 
south,  by  which  vehicles  can  enter  it,  and  these,  with 
a  third  from  the  west,  are  the  only  ones  fit  even  for 
any  but  very  hardy  pedestrians. 

There  was  once  an  old  Castle  at  Braemar,  a  hunt- 
ing seat  of  Malcolm  Ceannmor,  but  of  this  there  is 
now  hardly  a  trace.  The  picturesque  Mar  Castle, 
which  strikes  the  traveller  approaching  Braemar  from 
Ballater,  was  originally  built  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
but  was  burned  down.  After  the  forfeiture  of  the 
Earl  of  Mar  for  the  '15,  the  property  passed  into  other 
hands  and  the  Castle  was  repaired.  It  was  purchased 
by  Farquharson  of  Invercauld,  to  whose  family  it 
still  belongs.  After  the  ?45  Government  leased  it 
for  ninety-nine  years  and  fitted  it  up  as  it  is  still  seen, 
as  a  fortalice  to  overawe  the  Highlanders. 

It  was  at  Castletown  of  Braemar  that  the  old 
Chevalier  was  proclaimed  King  in  1715.  The  stand- 
ard then  erected  was  blue  and  on  it  were  emblazoned 
the  Scottish  arms  and  motto,  with  the  additional  legend 
"  No  Union,"  while  pendants  of  white  ribbon  were 
inscribed  "  For  Our  Wronged  King  and  Oppressed 
Country  "  and  "  For  Our  Lives  and  Liberties." 

The  Don,  the  other  Aberdeenshire  river,  flows 
through  a  valley  north  of  the  Dee  and  roughly  par- 
allel with  it.  On  Don  side,  some  twenty  miles  above 
Aberdeen,  we  find  a  memory  of  Malcolm  Ceannmor's 
expedition  against  the  Mormaer  of  Moray  (1078)  in 


ABERDEEN. 


209 


the  ancient  church  of  Monymusk,  the  lines  of  whose 
tower  he  is  said  to  have  traced  with  his  spear,  vowing 
the  building  to  St.  Andrew  in  case  of  victory.  About 
a  hundred  and  thirty  years  later  Gilchrist,  Earl  of 
Mar,  built  a  monastery  for  the  Culdees  on  the  site, 
and  the  chancel  arch  and  base  of  the  tower  in  the 
present  church  are  probably  parts  of  his  building. 

There  was  once  an  unusually  beautiful  and  pic- 
turesque dwelling-house  on  the  Cluny  estate,  to  the 
south,  but  it  has  been  replaced  by  a  commonplace 
modern  house.  Quite  near  it  however  stands  Fraser 
Castle,  very  large  and  very  imposing,  and  possessing 
one  singular  and  significant  feature — the  elaborate 
secret  arrangement  for  overhearing  from  above  con- 
versations taking  place  in  the  hall  or  main  apartment. 
At  the  end  of  this  hall  is  a  recessed  window,  with 
stone  seats  running  around  it,  the  only  spot  holding 
out  any  promise  of  privacy,  and  consequently  the  one 
sure  to  be  selected  for  confidential  disclosures. 
From  the  upper  part  of  this  recess  an  opening  is 
contrived  in  the  thickness  of  the  wall,  having  its 
outlet  in  a  secret  chamber  on  the  floor  above.  The 
modern  discoverer  of  this  "Lug"  (ear),  Mr.  Skene, 
experimented  with  it,  and  found  that  every  word 
uttered  by  those  in  the  window  recess  could  be 
plainly  heard  above.  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  a  close 
friend  of  Mr.  Skene,  and  it  has  been  suggested  that 
he  took  the  idea  of  James  VL's  "  Dyonisius  Ear"  in 
the  Tower  from  the  one  at  Castle  Fraser.  The 
Vol.  II.— 14 


210     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


King  is  described  as  chuckling  greatly  over  his  own 
shrewdness  when  he  tells  "  Baby  Charles "  and  the 
Duke  of  Buckingham  of  this  device  for  overhearing 
the  conversations  of  unsuspecting  prisoners  of  State, 
only  consenting  to  the  former's  prayer  that  it  may  be 
built  up  forthwith,  "  the  rather  that  my  back  is  sair 
with  sitting  in  it  for  a  whole  hour."1 

Craigievar,  a  striking  and  characteristic  Castle,  be- 
gun by  the  Mortimers  in  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  and  finished  by  William  Forbes  of 
Menie,  stands  about  ten  miles  further  west.  With  its 
many  pinnacled  turrets,  its  gables,  its  square  tower, 
and  its  hall,  where  the  paneled  oak  screen  and  other 
antique  features  are  still  preserved,  this  Castle  forms 
an  unusually  interesting  example  of  seventeenth-cen- 
tury domestic  architecture. 

Craig  Castle,  four  or  five  miles  north  of  Kildrummy, 
is  an  ancient  seat  of  a  branch  of  the  Gordons,  and 
is  still  in  that  family ;  and  near  it  is  the  ruined  six- 
teenth-century church  of  Kearn. 

Along  the  Valley  of  the  Don  runs  a  chain  of  an- 
cient fortresses.  There  is  Kildrummy,  built  by  Gil- 
bert de  Moravia,  in  the  time  of  Alexander  II.,  and 
in  Brace's  time  a  royal  Castle,  captured  by  Edward 
I. ;  it  was  possessed  later  by  the  Earls  of  Mar,  who 
forfeited  it  after  the  '15.  It  was  to  Kildrummy  that 
Robert  Bruce  sent  his  Queen  and  the  Princesses,  after 
his  defeat  at  Dairy  in  1306,  thinking  they  would 

1  Fortunes  of  Nigel,  chap,  xxiii. 


ABERDEEN. 


211 


there  be  safe ;  but  the  Prince  of  Wales  (Edward  II.) 
marched  with  a  strong  force  and  besieged  the  Castle. 
The  ladies  escaped  for  that  time  to  Ross-shire,  but 
the  King's  brother,  Nigel  Bruce,  was  taken  and  sent 
to  Berwick,  where  he  was  executed. 

Towie,  already  alluded  to,  one  of  the  many  for- 
talices  of  the  Forbes  family ;  Castle  Newe,  also 
belonging  to  the  Forbeses ;  Glenbucket,  held  by  a 
branch  of  the  Gordons;  Culquhanny,  begun  by  a 
Forbes  of  Towie,  but  never  completed;  and  at  the 
head  of  the  glen  Corgarff  Castle,  said  to  have  been 
built  by  an  Earl  of  Mar,  but  for  long  held  by  the 
Forbeses,  all  stand  in  the  Don  Valley.  Lickleyhead, 
a  turreted  Castle,  built  by  the  Forbeses  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  Leslie  Castle,  acquired  by  them 
at  the  same  period  through  intermarriage  with  the 
Leslies,  are  on  the  Gadie,  in  the  central  part  of  the 
county.  Balfluig  House,  also  belonging  to  the 
Forbeses,  is  just  south  of  Alford,  and  not  very  far 
from  Craigievar. 

In  fact,  nearly  one-third  of  the  ancient  Castles  of 
Aberdeenshire  were  either  built  by  members  of  the 
Forbes  family,  or  have  at  one  time  or  another  be- 
longed to  some  one  of  its  numerous  branches.  In 
Lumsden's  genealogy  of  that  house  it  is  recounted 
that  "  when  the  Earle  of  Marre,  with  the  rest  of  the 
gentilmen  of  the  North,  were  slaine  [at  the  battle  of 
Dupplin,  1332],  the  whole  surename  of  Forbes  was 
inlaiked ;  .  .  .  but  by  the  providence  of  God  the 


212     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  KOM ANTIC. 

principall  that  was  Laird  of  Driminnor,  had  a  gen- 
tlewoman to  his  wife,  with  bairne,  who  was  delyv- 
ered  of  a  son,  who  bracked  the  surnam,  and  non 
other,  who  being  brought  up  by  his  mother's  comand 
to  manhood,  through  his  virtous  deeds  was  made 
Knight,  and  was  called  Sr  John  Forbes  wt.  the  black 
lip,  by  a  mark  he  had  on  his  face." 

Driminnor,  or  Druminnor,  Castle  is  about  ten 
miles  north  of  Towie,  on  the  Burn  of  Kearn.  The 
oldest  part  of  the  present  building  dates  from  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Besides  the  Forbeses 
of  Druminnor,  the  three  younger  sons  of  Sir  John 
with  the  black  lip  founded  the  houses  of  Pitsligo, 
Tolquhon  and  Brux  respectively,  and  their  descend- 
ants spread  all  over  the  county. 

Castle  Forbes,  the  modern  seat  of  the  family,  is  on 
the  Don,  further  east ;  Corsindar  is  a  few  miles  south 
of  Monymusk.  The  fine  old  Castle  of  Tolquhon, 
dating  from  the  sixteenth  century,  was  built,  except 
the  earlier  Auld  Tour,  by  William  Forbes.  It  stands 
on  high  ground,  a  few  miles  to  the  east  of  Old  Mel- 
drum. 

South  of  Old  Meldrum  is  Inverurie,  near  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Urie  with  the  Don.  An  ancient  royalty 
of  the  Bruce  family,  it  was  the  site  of  one  of  the 
early  Jacobite  successes,  when  on  December  23,  1745, 
Lord  Lewis  Gordon  inarched  from  Aberdeen  with  a 
mixed  force  of  French  and  Lowland  Scotsmen,  and 
defeated  Macleod  of  Macleod,  who  was  advancing 


ABERDEEN. 


213 


from  Inverness  to  relieve  Aberdeen  with  a  force  of 
Highlanders,  assembled  by  Duncan  Forbes  and  Lord 
Loudon  in  the  Government  interest.  By  this  victory 
the  whole  of  the  country  from  Aberdeen  to  the  Spey 
was  held  for  Prince  Charles ;  and  Aberdeen  was  not 
evacuated  till  February  23. 

One  remarkable  feature  of  the  skirmish  was  that 
the  Highlanders  were  on  the  Government  side,  while 
the  Prince's  troops  were  Lowlanders  and  Scotsmen  in 
the  French  service. 

At  Inverurie  is  the  modern  mansion  of  Keith  Hall, 
the  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Kintore,  the  descendant  of  the 
John  Keith  who  was  ennobled  for  his  part  in  preserv- 
ing "  The  Honors  of  Scotland  "  during  the  Common- 
wealth occupation.  About  two  miles  to  the  northwest 
is  a  farm  bearing  the  name  of  Harlaw,  in  whose  fields 
was  fought  the  famous  bloody  battle  in  1411  by  which 
was  settled  the  question  whether  the  Gaelic  or  the 
Teutonic  part  of  the  population  was  to  have  supremacy 
in  Scotland.  Donald,  second  Lord  of  the  Isles,  who 
assumed  to  himself  almost  royal  rights,  and  who 
negotiated  treaties  with  the  English  Kings  Kichard  II. 
and  Henry  IV.,  feeling  himself  aggrieved  at  being 
deprived  of  the  Earldom  of  Ross,  collected  a  large 
army  from  the  Western  Islands  and  Highlands,  over- 
ran and  conquered  the  Earldom,  and  was  advancing 
southwards  when  he  was  met  and  completely  defeated 
by  a  far  less  numerous  force  under  Alexander  Stewart, 
the  Earl  of  Mar.    Among  the  Earl's  followers  was  a 


214     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


party  of  Aberdeen  citizens  under  their  Provost,  who 
was  slain.  From  that  time  no  Provost  of  Aberdeen 
has  been  allowed  to  appear  in  his  official  capacity 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  city. 

The  haughty,  contemptuous  feeling  of  the  Xorrnan 
nobility  towards  the  unmailed  Highlanders  is  well 
expressed  in  the  ballad  of  "  Harlaw  "  which  Sir  Walter 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  a  retainer  of  the  Glenallan 
family.  The  brave  appearance  of  Glenallan's  two 
hundred  mailed  knights  is  described,  and  then  : 

"  They  had  na  ridden  a  mile,  a  mile, 

A  mile,  but  barely  ten, 
When  Donald  came  branking  down  the  brae 

Wi'  twenty  thousand  men  ; 
Their  tartans  they  were  waving  wide, 

Their  glaives  were  glancing  clear, 
Their  pibrochs  rung  frae  side  to  side 

Would  deafen  ye  to  hear." 

The  Earl,  startled  at  the  unexpected  size  of  the 
enemy's  force,  consults  his  squire  as  to  what  it  were 
best  to  do,  and  the  instant  reply  is : 

"  If  they  hae  twenty  thousand  blades, 
And  we  twice  ten  times  ten, 
Yet  they  hae  but  their  tartan  plaids, 
And  we  are  mail-clad  men." 

Between  Inverurie  and  Old  Meldrum  is  Barra,  the 
site  of  the  battle  won  by  Robert  Bruce  over  Comyn, 
Earl  of  Buchan,  and  an  English  army  under  Sir  John 
Mowbray,  on  May  22,  1308.    Bruce,  who  was  at 


ABEKDEEN. 


215 


Inverurie,  arose  from  his  sick  bed,  to  which  he  had 
been  confined  since  Christmas,  declaring  that  the 
enemy's  challenge  had  made  him  well  and  strong,  far 
more  than  any  medical  aid  could  have  done.  He 
mounted  his  horse  and  at  the  head  of  his  men  swept 
down  with  such  fury  upon  the  enemy  that  for  half  a 
century  the  memory  of  that  harrying  was  green  in  the 
neighboring  country. 

Slains  Castle,  surmounting  a  cliff  on  the  coast 
northeast  of  Ellon,  is  the  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Errol, 
twenty-third  Hereditary  Lord  High  Constable  of 
Scotland.  It  was  at  Slains  on  Christmas  Day  of 
1307  that  Robert  Bruce  had  one  of  his  early  suc- 
cesses. After  he  had  won  the  battle  of  Loudon  Hill 
in  Ayrshire  he  had  gone  through  Scotland  rousing 
the  national  feeling,  and  had  reached  Aberdeenshire. 
His  great  enemy,  John  Comyn,  with  the  help  of 
an  English  force,  attacked  the  King  here,  but  was 
obliged  to  sue  for  truce,  and  the  episode  is  called  by 
the  old  chroniclers  the  Rout  of  Slenach  or  Slains. 

It  was  after  this  incident  that  the  King  became  so 
seriously  ill,  that  when  marching,  he  had  for  some 
months  to  be  carried  in  a  litter.  His  recovery,  with 
the  prospect  of  a  battle,  is  narrated  above. 

Eight  or  ten  miles  further  north  is  Peterhead,  where 
the  Chevalier  de  St.  George  landed  on  22d  December, 
1715.  Here  he  and  a  handful  of  attendants,  all  dis- 
guised as  seamen,  spent  one  night,  passing  on  the 
following  day  to  Newburgh,  a  seat  of  George  Keith, 


216     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 


tenth  and  last  Earl  Marischal.  A  little  to  the  north- 
west of  Peterhead  is  the  imposing  ruin  of  Ravens- 
craig,  another  seat  of  the  Keiths,  whose  now  crumb- 
ling walls  measure  nine  feet  in  thickness. 

At  Inverugie,  beyond  the  river  Ugie  and  two  or 
three  miles  from  Peterhead,  was  born  (June  11,  1696) 
James  Francis  Edward,  who  became  later  the  cele- 
brated Marshal  Keith,  a  close  friend  of  Frederick  the 
Great.  The  story  goes  that  when  on  his  way  to  Lon- 
don in  1715  to  try  for  a  commission,  he  met  his 
brother,  the  Earl  Marischal,  hastening  back  to  Scot- 
land to  take  part  in  the  rising  under  Mar.  James 
returned  with  him  and  together  they  proclaimed 
James  VIII.  at  the  Cross  of  Aberdeen  and  took  an 
active  part  in  the  rebellion.  Escaping  afterwards  to 
the  Continent,  James  served  first  in  Spain  and  then  in 
Russia,  and  at  last,  coming  to  Prussia,  was  taken  into 
high  favor  by  King  Frederick  the  Great,  who  created 
him  Field  Marshal  and  Governor  of  Berlin.  He  was 
killed  in  the  battle  of  Hoch  Kirch  (October  14, 1758), 
when  the  Austrians  surprised  the  Prussian  right  wing 
in  the  early  morning  and  completely  defeated  them. 
Keith's  plundered  body  was  found  enveloped  only  in 
a  Croat's  mantle.  He  was  honorably  interred  in  the 
Garrison  Church  in  Berlin.  The  statue  of  him  given 
to  Peterhead  in  1860  by  King  William  of  Prussia  is 
a  copy  of  the  one  erected  in  Berlin  by  Frederick  and 
since  removed  to  the  Cadets  Academy.  In  1889  the 
German  Emperor  ordered  the  Twenty-second  Silesian 


ABERDEEN. 


217 


Regiment  to  be  named  the  Keith  Regiment  in  his 
honor.  The  Marshal's  elder  brother,  George,  tenth 
Earl  Marischal,  was  attainted  for  his  part  in  the  *15. 
He  and  his  brother  were  also  present  at  the  battle  of 
Glenshiel  in  1719.  He  shared  his  brother's  wander- 
ings on  the  Continent,  standing  even  higher  in  the 
esteem  of  Frederick  the  Great,  who  in  one  letter  styles 
himself  his  "old  friend  till  death."  He  was  pardoned 
by  George  II.  in  1759,  and  when  acting  as  Prussian 
Ambassador  to  Spain  disclosed  the  "  Family  Com- 
pact 99 1  to  Pitt,  for  which  service  he  was  permitted  to 
inherit  estates  in  Scotland,  his  own  having  all  been 
sold.  In  1764  the  Earl  determined  to  return  to  Scot- 
land, the  Kintore  estates  having  recently  come  to  him 
through  the  death  of  a  cousin.  He  bought  back  a 
part  of  his  own  as  well.  A  large  number  of  persons, 
old  friends,  retainers  and  others,  assembled  at  the 
bridge  of  Ugie  to  give  him  a  hearty  and  enthusiastic 
welcome,  but  it  is  said  that  the  first  sight  of  Inver- 
ugie,  dismantled  and  in  ruins,  so  affected  him  that  the 
tears  streamed  down  his  face  and  he  could  go  no 
further.  He  had  in  fact  lived  too  long  in  foreign 
lands  to  settle  down  happily  in  his  northern  home. 
He  missed  the  warmth  of  Spain  (he  was  seventy- 
seven  and  in  poor  health),  the  congenial  society  of 
Berlin,  the  freedom  of  Continental  life.  Accordingly, 

1  A  secret  alliance  between  the  members  of  the  House  of  Bourbon 
to  treat  as  a  common  enemy  any  Power  unfriendly  to  either  France 
or  Spain. 


218     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  KOM ANTIC. 

when  the  King  of  Prussia  wrote  urging  him  to  return, 
he  decided  to  do  so  and  passed  the  remaining  fourteen 
years  of  his  life  in  a  house  provided  for  him  by  Fred- 
erick close  to  Sans  Souci.  There  he  died  in  1778, 
unmarried,  having  never  wavered  in  an  attach- 
ment he  had  formed  for  a  French  lady,  who  after- 
wards became  Madame  de  Cregny.  Anne  Murray 
Keith,  sister  of  Robert  "the  Ambassador/'  of  the 
Keiths  of  Craig,  was  the  original  of  Scott's  Mrs. 
Bethune  Baliol  (Chronicles  of  the  Canongate)  and  from 
her  he  obtained  many  a  good  anecdote  and  telling 
phrase.  "  Gae  wa '  wi '  ye,"  said  this  spirited  old 
lady  when  Scott  tried  to  persuade  her  that  she  was 
mistaken  in  attributing  the  authorship  of  Waverley  to 
him ;  "  do  ye  think  I  dinna  ken  my  ain  groats  among 
other  folks'  kail?" 

On  Philorth  Water,  within  a  mile  of  the  coast,  is 
Cairnbulg  Castle,  originally  owned  by  the  Comyns, 
but  which  passed  into  the  Fraser  family  in  the  four- 
teenth century. 

The  Frasers  of  Philorth  came,  like  the  Frasers  of 
Lovat,  from  an  East  Lothian  family  and  settled  at 
Philorth  about  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century.  In 
the  seventeenth  century  the  laird  inherited  the  ancient 
Abernethy  peerage  of  Saltoun  through  his  father's  mar- 
riage with  the  Saltoun  heiress.  The  sixteenth  Lord 
Saltoun  was  the  officer  who  defended  the  orchard  and 
wood  of  Hougoumont  so  gallantly  at  the  battle  of 
Waterloo.    The  thriving  town  of  Fraserburgh,  to  the 


ABERDEEN. 


219 


north,  of  Philorth,  was  founded  by  this  family  in 
1569.  It  gives  an  idea  of  the  great  impetus  given  to 
education  by  the  Reformation  to  know  that  in  1 592 
Fraser  of  Philorth  founded  a  miiversity  in  this  out 
of  the  way  corner.  Unfortunately  it  did  not  last 
long.  The  professors  were  ministers,  and  their  prin- 
cipal attended  a  General  Assembly  at  Aberdeen  in 
1605  which  had  been  forbidden  by  royal  proclama- 
tion. For  this  he  was  imprisoned  and  afterwards 
prevented  from  returning  to  his  charge ;  and  from 
this  date  nothing  more  is  heard  of  the  University  of 
Fraserburgh. 

The  keep  of  the  fine  old  Fraser  Castle  on  Kin- 
naird  Head  to-day  serves  as  the  shaft  of  a  lighthouse. 
Near  it  is  a  mysterious  fifteenth  century  building  of 
three  stories,  built  on  the  rocky  shore  above  a  sea- 
cave.  It  is  known  as  the  "  Wine  Tower,"  but  what 
its  origin  or  the  intention  of  its  founder  is  an  enigma. 
Fraserburgh  is  now  prosperous  as  a  great  fishing 
centre. 

For  fifty  years  Fraserburgh  was  the  scene  of  the 
labors  of  the  pious  and  scholarly  Alexander  Jolly, 
Bishop  of  Moray.  He  lived  quite  alone  in  a  com- 
modious two-storied  house  in  the  centre  of  the  town. 
His  mode  of  life  was  of  the  simplest.  Arising  every 
morning,  both  summer  and  winter,  at  four  o'clock,  he 
prepared  his  own  breakfast ;  the  wife  of  a  neighbor- 
ing mason  then  arrived  to  make  his  bed  and  perform 
such  other  household  services  as  he  might  require; 


220     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

these  done  she  withdrew,  locking  the  front  door  and 
taking  the  key  away.  Then  for  any  one  wanting  to 
see  the  Bishop  there  was  no  way  but  to  look  up 
"  Mistress  Rettie  "  and  prevail  upon  her  to  unlock  the 
portal.  In  the  middle  of  the  day  she  would  again 
be  seen  hurrying  down  the  street,  bearing  a  very 
small  wooden-covered  pot  and  something  under  her 
apron ;  these  represented  the  whole  of  the  Bishop's 
dinner.  His  day  was  carefully  arranged,  every  hour 
having  its  appointed  task,  an  orderly  routine  of  prayer 
and  study  and  worship  and  visitation  among  his  flock. 
So  abstemious  and  self-denying  was  his  life  that  his 
modest  income  not  only  stood  the  frequent  demands 
made  upon  it  for  acts  of  charity,  but  it  enabled  him 
to  collect  a  valuable  library. 

When  Mr.  Jolly  was  ordained  in  1776  the  Act  of 
1748  was  still  in  force.  It  forbade  the  Episcopal 
clergy  to  hold  services  for  more  than  five  persons  or 
four  and  a  family  at  a  time,  under  pain  of  a  fine  and 
six  months  imprisonment.  The  Episcopal  Church 
was  in  fact  so  closely  identified  with  the  cause  of  the 
exiled  Stuarts  that  it  was  naturally  involved  in  all 
the  hardships  brought  to  the  Jacobites  by  the  '45. 
It  was  therefore  quite  natural  that  the  Scottish  bishops 
should  be  moved  by  a  certain  similarity  of  position,  as 
well  as  by  their  sympathies,  to  offer  consecration  to 
Seabury  when  the  English  bishops  held  back,  and  it 
should  also  be  remembered  that  they  had  no  tempor- 
alities to  lose.     In  this  transaction  Jolly  took  an 


ABERDEEN. 


221 


interested  part,  and  there  is  preserved  among  his 
papers  a  prayer  composed  by  him  on  the  occasion  of 
Bishop  Seabury's  consecration. 

In  1788,  with  the  death  of  Prince  Charles  Edward, 
the  Church,  through  its  Bishops  and  Diocesan  Synods, 
determined  upon  a  general  submission  to  the  House 
of  Hanover;  and  thirty-three  years  later,  when 
George  IV.  visited  Edinburgh,  the  Scottish  Bishops 
prepared  to  wait  upon  his  Majesty  at  Holy  rood  with 
a  loyal  address.  It  was  a  somewhat  trying  occasion 
for  the  Prelates,  all  of  whom  had  in  their  early  days 
been  avowed  non-jurors.  His  biographer  tells  that 
Bishop  Jolly's  "Southern  colleagues  very  needlessly 
added  to  their  other  anxieties  a  lively  apprehension 
lest  their  recluse  brother  from  the  North  should  not 
appear  at  Holyrood  in  sufficiently  courtier-like  cos- 
tume." 

"But  there  is  another  thing  about  which  Bishop 
Sadford  is  distressing  himself  exceedingly,"  wrote  the 
Primus.  "It  is  Bishop  Jolly's  wig.  About  this  the 
Bishop  seems  absolutely  nervous,  alleging  that  the 
King  will  not  be  able  to  stand  the  sight  of  it,  and 
assuring  Dr.  Russell  that  it  6  would  convulse  the  whole 
court/  " 

The  wig  in  question  had  been  described  by  a 
visitor  to  Fraserburgh  as  "indeed  something  re- 
markable. It  was  of  snow-white  colour,  and  stood 
out  behind  his  head  in  numerous  curls  of  six  or 
eight  inches  in  depth."     However,  it  so  happened 


222     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 

that  some  years  before  Lord  Saltoun  had  presented 
the  Bishop  with  "  a  very  handsome  spare  wig  and 
it  was  undoubtedly  this  which  he  wore  to  Edinburgh  ; 
for,  far  from  being  "convulsed,"  the  entire  court 
seems  to  have  been  deeply  impressed  by  the  vener- 
able and  dignified  bearing  of  the  Bishop.  A  con- 
temporary account  says  :  "  Jolly  was  the  most  observed 
of  all  the  Bishops.  The  wig  was  curled  and  bare, 
i.  e.,  unpowdered.  He  wore  a  thin,  single-breasted 
coat  and  plain  bombazine  apron,  and  had  a  simple 
black  stick — I  think  he  said  a  knobby  stick.  When 
he  appeared  with  the  others  in  the  Parliament  House 

one  of  R  's  friends  whispered  in  his  ear  the 

single  word  'Waverley!'  meaning  plainly,  '  There  is 
a  figure  from  the  Waverley  period.  'Tis  sixty  (or 
then  rather  eighty)  years  since/  " 

Turriff,  where  Bishop  Jolly  spent  the  eleven  years 
following  on  his  ordination,  is  close  to  the  boundary 
of  Banff,  near  the  Deveron,  and  was  the  scene  of  the 
first  breaking  out  of  hostilities  between  the  Royalists 
and  Covenanters,  in  which  the  latter  played  so  un- 
heroic  a  part  that  the  skirmish  came  to  be  known  as 
the  "  Trot  of  Turriff."  There  had  assembled  in  the 
town  a  "  Committee  of  the  Tables,"  of  whom  a  large 
number  were  Forbeses.  The  Gordons,  who  had  assem- 
bled at  Strathbogie  in  considerable  force,  together 
with  a  good  many  of  the  Royalists,  determined  to 
disperse  the  gathering  at  Turriff;  and  after  casting 
about  for  some  excuse,  agreed  to  engage  first  "  for  the 


ABERDEEN. 


223 


King's  prerogative next  "  for  the  dutye,  service 
and  honour  and  safetye  of  Huntly  and  his  familye, 
and  for  their  owne  mutuall  preservatione."  They 
accordingly  attacked  the  Covenanters  in  the  early 
morning  (14th  May,  1639),  and  finding  them  unpre- 
pared and  in  great  confusion,  won  an  easy  victory, 
"  though  there  wanted  not  many  gentlemen  of  courage 
and  gallantrye,  yet  it  was  to  small  purpose,  whilst 
none  was  there  to  commande,  and  nobody  knew  whom 
to  obeye ;  and  meanwhyle,  as  it  befalls  in  such  cases, 
all  commanded  and  no  bodye  obeyed." 

This  little  engagement,  in  which  there  were  but  two 
men  killed  on  one  side  and  one  on  the  other,  is  chiefly 
memorable  as  the  opening  action  of  the  great  Civil 
War  which  shook  the  three  kingdoms,  and  which 
ended  in  the  execution  of  King  Charles,  ten  years 
later,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Commonwealth. 

Fyvie,  six  or  seven  miles  southeast  from  Turriff,  is 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  well-preserved  Castles 
in  Scotland.  It  came  to  the  Seton  family  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  its  more  ornamental  features — 
turrets,  gables,  statuary  and  canopies — were  built  by 
Alexander  Seton,  godson  of  Queen  Mary,  tutor  to 
her  grandson,  afterwards  Charles  I.  Seton  was  cre- 
ated Lord  Fyvie  in  1598,  appointed  Lord  Chancellor 
six  years  later,  and  created  Lord  Dunfermline  in  1G06. 
The  stone  trumpeter  seen  surmounting  one  of  the 
turrets  represents  Andrew  Lammie,  the  Trumpeter  of 
Fyvie,  and  the  hero  of  "  Tifty's  Nanny,"  one  of  the 


224     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


most  popular  ballads  in  the  north  of  Scotland.  At 
Mill  of  Tiftie  Farm,  not  half  a  mile  from  Fyvie, 
lived  Nanny,  or  Agnes  Smith,  who  had  lost  her  heart 
to  the  trumpeter.  As  she  had  a  good  dowry  and  her 
lover  was  penniless,  her  father  refused  to  allow  the 
match,  and  by  way  of  enforcing  the  lesson  of  obedi- 
ence, beat  her ;  her  mother  did  the  same ;  her  sisters 
reviled  her,  and  her  brother  beat  her  till  he  broke  her 
back.  Thereupon  she  had  her  bed  placed  where  she 
could  look  towards  Fyvie,  and  so  died. 

"  O  Andrew's  gane  to  the  house-top, 
O  the  bonny  house  o  Fyvie ; 
He's  blawn  his  horn  baith  loud  and  shrill 
O'er  the  lawland  leas  o  Fyvie. 

"  Mony  a  time  hae  I  walked  a  night, 
And  never  yet  was  weary ; 
But  now  I  may  walk  wae  my  lane, 
For  I'll  never  see  my  deary." 

It  is  told  that  some  years  after  Nanny's  death  her 
story  was  repeated,  and  the  ballad  sung  in  a  gather- 
ing in  Edinburgh,  when  by  "  a  groan  suddenly  burst- 
ing from  one  of  the  company,  and  several  of  the 
buttons  flying  from  his  waistcoat,"  he  was  discovered 
to  be  none  other  than  the  unhappy  Andrew  Lammie. 

About  ten  miles  northwest  of  Fyvie  is  Fren draught, 
a  Castle  of  the  Crichtons,  commemorated  in  another 
famous  ballad,  "  The  Burning  of  Frendraught."  The 
Marquis  of  Huntly,  in  his  efforts  to  put  an  end  to  the 


ABERDEEN. 


225 


feud  between  the  Crichtons  and  Leslies,  sent  his  son, 
Lord  Aboyne,  and  the  young  Laird  of  Rothiemay, 
whose  father  had  been  killed  in  a  previous  fight  with 
the  Crichtons,  to  protect  Crichton  from  a  lying-in- wait 
of  the  Leslies  (October  8, 1 630).  On  reaching  Frend- 
raught  both  the  Laird  and  his  wife  (herself  related  to 
the  Gordons)  insisted  on  keeping  the  two  young  gentle- 
men over  night.  After  a  jovial  supper  the  guests  and 
their  servants  were  assigned  rooms  in  the  old  tower, 
whose  lower  story  was  entirely  of  stone,  while  the  three 
upper  ones  were  finished  inside  with  timber.  Suddenly 
in  the  middle  of  the  night  there  was  an  alarm  of  fire ; 
the  tower  was  discovered  to  be  in  a  blaze,  and  so 
fiercely  and  rapidly  did  the  flames  spread  that  of  the 
nine  persons  who  were  in  it,  three  only  escaped.  Lord 
Aboyne  might  have  got  away,  it  was  said,  had  he  not 
gone  to  aid  his  friend  Rothiemay,  who  was  on  an 
upper  floor ;  the  fire  had  reached  the  stairs  and  the 
windows  were  so  securely  fastened  that  they  could  not 
escape  by  them.  The  two  young  men  were  last  seen 
at  a  window  trying  to  open  it  and  calling  upon  the 
helpless  onlookers  from  without  for  aid.  Strange  to 
say,  the  blame  for  this  deplorable  disaster  was  laid  at 
the  door  of  the  Laird  and  his  lady.  They  had  just 
sought  and  obtained  the  powerful  protection  of  the 
Gordons  in  their  feud  with  the  Leslies ;  their  former 
quarrel  with  the  family  of  Rothiemay  had  lately  been 
settled,  leaving  the  grievance  decidedly  on  the  other 
side;  Frendraught  had  shown  himself  throughout  the 
Vol.  II.— 15 


226     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

troubles  to  be  on  the  side  of  peace  and  friendliness ; 
and  there  was  absolutely  nothing  to  gain  by  the  crime 
and  everything  to  lose.  Moreover,  though  the  subse- 
quent investigation  conducted  by  order  of  the  Privy 
Council  found  that  the  fire  was  the  work  of  an  incen- 
diary, yet  had  the  guilty  person  (in  the  face  of  all 
probability)  been  the  Laird,  it  is  unlikely  that  he 
would  have  had  the  fortitude  to  denude  himself  of 
valuable  family  papers  and  a  large  amount  of  gold 
and  silver,  all  of  which  were  burned  in  the  tower. 
There  was  too  no  possible  way  in  which  it  could 
have  been  known  or  guessed  beforehand  that  the 
Marquis  of  Huntly  would  send  his  son  and  his  guest 
back  with  Frendraught,  nor  that  once  there  they 
would  remain  ;  while  it  was  clear  that  the  preparations 
must  have  been  made  well  beforehand.  Notwith- 
standing all  these  significant  facts,  however,  the 
country-side  held  that  the  Crichtons  were  parties  to 
the  burning,  and  they  were  tabooed  by  general  con- 
sent, the  head  of  the  Gordons  himself  setting  the 
example.  On  the  day  following  the  tragedy  Lady 
Frendraught,  "  busked  in  a  white  plaid  and  riding  on 
a  small  nag,  having  a  boy  leading  her  horse,  without 
any  more  in  her  company,  in  this  pitiful  manner  she 
came  weeping  and  mourning  to  the  Bog  [Strath bogie], 
desiring  entry  to  speak  with  my  Lord  [Huntly],  but 
this  was  refused;  so  she  returned  back  to  her  own 
house  the  same  gait  she  came,  comfortless." 

The  Leslies  of  course  seized  on  this  opportunity  to 


ABERDEEN. 


227 


be  avenged  of  their  enemy,  while  Lady  Kothiemay, 
having  now  the  double  loss  of  husband  and  son  to 
charge  to  the  account  of  the  Crichtons,  was  implacable 
in  her  bitterness  and  hostility.  It  is  recounted  that 
the  Frendraught  estates  became  the  object  of  repeated 
attacks  from  broken  clans  and  other  roving  bands  of 
marauders ;  again  and  again  did  the  Laird  call  out 
his  followers  to  repel  these  inroads,  but  at  last,  weary- 
ing of  the  unequal  strife  and  the  loneliness  of  his 
position,  he  was  fain  to  haul  down  his  colors, 
abandon  his  estates,  and  go  to  Edinburgh  to  live. 
Immediately  the  Gordons  assembled,  ravaged  his 
lands  and  even  hung  one  of  his  tenants. 

It  is  now  generally  supposed  that  the  fire  was  either 
purely  accidental  or  was  the  work  of  Meldrum  of 
Iiedhill,  who  had  a  spite  against  Frendraught,  and 
intended  it  solely  as  an  act  of  revenge  against  him,  not 
counting  of  course  on  the  accident  of  the  party  from 
Huntly  sleeping  there  on  that  particular  night.  Mel- 
drum was  taken  to  Edinburgh,  tried  and  executed, 
though  no  very  complete  evidence  was  brought  to  con- 
vict him.  In  the  ballad  Lady  Frendraught  is  repre- 
sented as  watching  the  fire  from  the  green  and  telling 
her  victims  that  she  has  had  the  windows  fastened 
and  the  doors  locked  and  thrown  the  keys  in  the 
well. 

Off  the  coast  of  Aberdour,  the  northwesternmost 
parish  of  Aberdeenshire,  is  the  spot  where  the  ships  of 
Sir  Patrick  Spens  foundered: 


228     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


M  Half  owre,  half  owre  to  Aberdour 
It's  fifty  fadoras  deep, 
And  there  lay  good  Sir  Patrick  Spens, 
And  the  Scotch  Lords  at  his  feet." 

The  cave  called  Cowshaven,  in  the  extreme  east  of 
the  parish,  is  where  the  last  Lord  Pitsligo  lay  con- 
cealed for  many  months  during  his  proscription  for 
taking  part  in  the  ?45.  The  country  people  to  whom 
his  hiding-place  was  well  known,  out  of  their  great 
affection  and  regard  for  him,  united  to  prevent  his 
detection.  "  The  mother  of  my  informant,  then  a 
girl  of  sixteen  years  of  age,  procured  him  tools  for  this 
purpose  [the  cutting  of  a  well],  and  supplied  him  with 
food  and  other  necessaries  of  life  ;  but  at  last  he  was 
compelled  to  quit  his  prison  house,  his  dreary  abode 
having  been  discovered  by  her  footsteps  in  the  snow."1 

His  privations  and  sufferings  must  have  been  aggra- 
vated by  his  age  (he  was  near  on  to  seventy  at  the 
time  of  the  rising)  and  the  very  slight  enthusiasm  with 
which  he  had  adopted  the  Stuart  cause.  His  own 
account  says  :  u  I  thought,  I  weighed,  and  I  weighed 
again.  If  there  was  any  enthusiasm  in  it,  it  was  of 
the  coldest  kind ;  and  there  was  as  little  remorse  when 
the  affair  miscarried  as  there  was  eagerness  at  the 
beginning."  After  five  years,  during  which  he  lived 
in  caves  and  on  the  moors,  sometimes  feigning  himself 
a  beggar,  and  always  succeeding — though  sometimes 
very  narrowly — in  eluding  his  enemies,  yet  always 

1  New  Statistical  Account,  1840. 


ABERDEEN. 


229 


shielded  by  his  old  retainers,  the  hue  and  cry  had  so 
far  subsided  that  he  ventured  to  take  up  his  residence 
with  his  son  at  Auchiries  under  the  non-committal 
name  of  Mr.  Brown.  Several  years  later,  this  fact 
having  been  rumored,  a  search  party  was  sent  there, 
but  he  again  escaped,  being  hid  in  a  closet  whose  door 
was  behind  the  bed  of  one  of  the  ladies  of  the  house- 
hold.   He  finally  died,  still  at  large,  in  1762. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


BANFF,  ELGIN  OR  MORAY,  NAIRN  (LOWLAND) — ROSS 
AND  CROMARTY,  SUTHERLAND  (HIGHLAND) — 
CAITHNESS,  ORKNEY  AND  SHETLAND  (SCANDI- 
NAVIAN.) 

BANFF. 

Banff,  the  capital  town  of  the  county  of  that  name, 
lies  on  the  coast  at  the  mouth  of  the  Deveron.  But 
few  traces  remain  of  its  ancient  buildings.  There  are 
the  walls  of  the  old  Castle,  where  Archbishop  Sharp 
was  born  (1618),  and  a  single  aisle  of  the  old  kirk, 
now  used  by  the  Ogilvies  as  a  burial-place. 

Duff  House,  the  seat  of  the  Dukes  of  Fife,  is  a 
classical  building,  designed  by  the  elder  Adam.  It 
stands  in  the  midst  of  a  beautiful  park,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Deveron.  Among  the  collection  of 
curiosities  preserved  at  Duff  House  are  a  target  and 
two-handed  sword  said  to  have  belonged  to  the  free- 
booter James  MacPherson.  This  man  was  the  son 
of  a  Highland  laird  and  a  gipsy  woman ;  he  was 
noted  for  his  great  strength,  his  beauty,  and  for  his 
wonderful  skill  on  the  violin.  After  spending  his 
boyhood  in  his  father's  house,  he  joined  his  mother's 
people  and  became  a  noted  vagabond.    In  1700  he 

230 


BANFF. 


231 


was  tried  and  condemned  as  "holdin,  known,  and 
reput  an  Egyptian ; "  and  it  was  while  walking  to  his 
execution  that  he  composed  the  air  known  as  "  Mac- 
Pherson's  Rant:" 

M  I've  spent  my  time  in  rioting, 

Debauch'd  my  health  and  strength ; 
I  squander'd  fast  as  pillage  came, 

And  fell  to  shame  at  length. 
But  dantonly  and  wantonly 

And  rantonly  I'll  gae  ; 
I'll  play  a  tune,  and  dance  it  roun, 

Below  the  gallow-tree." 

In  central  Banffshire  is  Auchindoun  Castle,  an  an- 
cient ruin  dating  from  about  the  fifteenth  century.  It 
belonged  originally  to  the  Ogilvies,  but  passed  from 
them  to  the  Gordons. 

To  avenge  the  murder  of  the  Bonnie  Earl  of 
Moray  by  the  Earl  of  Himtly,  several  noblemen  of 
the  North  banded  together  and  laid  waste  a  tract  of 
the  Gordon  estates  and  burned  Auchindoun.  The 
Earl's  fury  signalled  out  the  chief  of  the  Clan  Mack- 
intosh as  being  mainly  responsible  for  this,  and  so 
fierce  was  the  retaliation  that,  in  order  to  spare  his 
clan  further  suffering,  it  is  told  that  the  chief  waited 
upon  the  head  of  the  Gordons  at  Bog  of  Gight  and 
offered  to  submit  to  any  terms  of  peace  that  might  be 
proposed.  The  Earl  was  away,  but  his  lady,  acting 
in  his  stead,  declared  that  Mackintosh's  offences 
would  never  be  pardoned  till  his  head  had  been 


232     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 

brought  to  the  block.  "  It  is  done,  and  I  submit  to 
your  mercy  !"  cried  the  chief;  and  kneeling  at  the 
block  whereon  the  animals  were  quartered  for  house- 
hold use,  he  bared  his  neck.  Quite  unexpected  was 
the  result.  The  cook  happened  to  be  standing  near, 
hatchet  in  hand;  he  received  a  sign,  and  in  a  twink- 
ling the  too  trusting  Mackintosh's  head  was  rolling 
across  the  courtyard.  The  ballad  makes  no  mention 
of  this  incident.  It  tells  of  the  burning  of  Auchin- 
doun  by  Willie  Mackintosh,  and  alludes  to  the  conse- 
quent fight  with  the  Gordons  at  Stapliegate,  when 
Mackintosh  was  wounded  and  sixty  of  his  followers 
killed. 

"  '  Turn,  Willie  Mackintosh- 
Turn,  I  bid  you ; 
Gin  ye  burn  Auchindoun, 
Huntly  will  head  you.' 

u  '  Head  me  or  hang  me, 
That  canna  fley  me  ; 
I'll  burn  Auchindoun 
Ere  the  life  lea'  me.' 

*         *         *  * 

"  '  Bonny  Willie  Mackintosh, 
Whare  left  ye  your  men  ? ' 
'  I  left  them  in  the  Stapler, 

But  they'll  never  come  hame.'  " 

Balvenie  Castle,  about  a  mile  from  Dufftown,  be- 
longed in  early  times  to  the  Corny ns,  and  then  to  the 
Douglases,  but  on  the  marriage  of  John  Stewart,  son 
of  the  Black  Knight  of  Lorn  (half-brother  of  James 


BANFF. 


233 


II.),  to  Margaret,  widow  of  the  Earl  of  Douglas,  he 
received  from  his  brother,  the  King,  the  lands  of 
Balvenie  and  the  title  of  Earl  of  Atholl.  The  motto 
borne  to-day  by  the  Earls  of  Atholl  was  granted  to 
him  by  James  III.  for  suppressing  a  revolt  of  the 
Earl  of  Ross.  It  is  seen  on  the  front  of  the  Castle : 
"  Furth  Fortuin  and  fil  the  fatris."  Glenlivet, 
in  the  southern  part  of  Banff,  was  the  scene  of  a 
battle  (4th  October,  1594)  between  the  Earl  of 
Argyll,  for  the  King,  and  the  Roman  Catholic 
forces  of  the  "  Popish  Lords  " — the  Earls  of  Errol, 
Angus  and  Huntly — in  which  the  latter  were  vic- 
torious.1 Campbell  of  Lochnell,  to  avenge  his 
brother's  murder  at  the  hands  of  Argyll,  turned 
traitor,  and  on  his  death,  in  the  first  onslaught,  his 

1  These  nobles  had  been  concerned  shortly  before  in  the  conspiracy- 
called  the  "  Spanish  Blanks,"  from  the  blank  papers  bearing  the 
seals  of  the  Catholic  Lords,  discovered  on  the  person  of  George 
Kerr  just  as  he  was  about  to  leave  on  a  mission  to  Spain.  Every 
effort  was  made  by  Government  to  discover  some  writing  in  sympa- 
thetic or  secret  ink,  but  none  could  be  found,  and  it  was  finally  con- 
cluded that  these  nobles  had  agreed  to  support  from  the  North 
Country  an  invasion  of  England  by  Spain.  Fearing  to  put  any- 
thing in  writing  that  might  be  seized  in  transit,  they  had  ac- 
quainted the  Jesuits  with  what  they  were  prepared  to  engage  with 
the  Spanish  King,  and  the  terms  of  their  treaty  were  to  be  written 
on  the  blank  paper  over  their  signatures  and  seals,  after  their  emis- 
sary had  reached  Spain. 

By  the  irony  of  history  Argyll  eventually,  "  drawn  aside  by  his 
second  lady,  who  was  a  Papist,"  became  a  Roman  Catholic  and  en- 
tered the  Spanish  service,  while  Huntly  and  Errol  became  Protest- 
ants, and  were  publicly  received  into  that  Church  and  reconciled  to 
King  James. 


234     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

men  all  left  the  field,  as  they  had  agreed  to  do  in  any 
case.  John  Grant  of  Gartenbeg,  a  vassal  of  Huntly's, 
with  his  followers,  also  deserted  from  Argyll  at  a 
critical  moment ;  and  it  was  probably  these  two  defec- 
tions that  brought  about  the  defeat  of  the  Royal 
forces.  It  was  however  a  fruitless  victory,  and  the 
"  Popish  Lords  "  submitted  to  the  King  shortly  after- 
wards. 

A  little  higher  up  the  valley  are  the  Braes  of 
Cromdale,  where  on  May  1,  1690,  a  Government 
force  under  Sir  Thomas  Livingstone  surprised  and 
cut  to  pieces  the  last  Highland  army  that  made  a 
stand  for  King  James  against  William  of  Orauge, 
and  thus  ended  that  war  in  Scotland. 

ELGIN  OR  MORAY. 

Only  a  few  miles  to  the  northwest  of  Dufftown  the 
River  Spey  forms  for  some  distance  the  modern  boun- 
dary line  between  the  counties  of  Banff  and  Elgin,  just 
as  in  former  times  it  marked  the  southeast  boundary 
of  Moray — a  district  that  comprised,  roughly  speaking, 
Elgin,  Nairn,  all  the  northeastern  part  of  Inverness 
and  the  eastern  half  of  Ross  and  Cromarty.  This 
district  was  populated  by  the  Gaelic  Picts  of  the 
North.  After  the  victory  of  the  Scottish  Kenneth 
MacAlpin  in  839  it  became  the  principality  of 
Moravia,  to  the  family  of  whose  hereditary  Maormors 
Macbeth's  father  belonged.    Two  daughters  of  Mai- 


ELGIN  OR  MORAY. 


235 


colm  II.,  King  of  Scotia,  married,  the  one  Crinan,  lay 
Abbot  of  Dunkeld,  the  other  Sigurd  the  Stout,  Earl  of 
Caithness  and  Orkney.  Between  their  sons  a  quarrel 
sprang  up,  Duncan,  who  succeeded  his  grandfather 
(1034)  on  the  throne  of  Scotia,  requiring  his  cousin, 
who  had  inherited  the  Earldom  of  Orkney  and  Shet- 
land, to  pay  tribute  for  Caithness  and  Sutherland, 
bestowed  upon  him  by  Malcolm.  A  decisive  battle 
took  place  at  Burghead  in  1040,  which  the  Norsemen 
won.  Duncan  fled  and  was  murdered  by  his  general 
(also  a  cousin)  Macbeth,  at  Pitgaveny  on  Loch  Spynie, 
about  nine  miles  from  the  battle-field.  Macbeth  seized 
the  throne  and  reigned  for  forty-three  years  as  King 
of  Scotia  (1014-1057) ;  then  he  was  killed  at  the  battle 
of  Lumphanan  in  Aberdeenshire  by  Malcolm  Ceann- 
mor,  son  of  the  murdered  Duncan.  For  about  seventy 
years  longer  Moray  continued  to  be  ruled  by  its 
hereditary  Maormors ;  then  with  the  death  of  the  last 
of  these  in  direct  line  came  a  period  of  struggle  which 
finally  ended  in  the  absorption  of  the  district  into  the 
rest  of  the  Scottish  Kingdom  under  Alexander  II. 
(1222). 

The  Episcopal  See  of  Moray  was  founded  in  1107 
by  Alexander  I.,  grandson  of  Malcolm  Ceannmor,  and 
Queen  Margaret.  Before  this  but  one  Bishopric — 
that  of  St.  Andrews — existed  in  the  whole  of  Scotland. 
For  over  a  hundred  years  the  Episcopal  seat  of  Moray 
had  no  sure  abiding-place,  being  established  first  at 
Birnie,  then  at  Kineddar,  then  at  Spynie,  until  at  last 


236     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


in  1224  Andrew,  Bishop  of  Moravia,  selected  Elgin 
as  the  most  favorable  place  for  its  final  settlement, 
erected  the  existing  church  of  the  Holy  Trinity  into  a 
Cathedral/  and  set  about  constructing  the  splendid 
buildings  whose  ruins  form  to-day  at  once  one  of 
the  most  melancholy  and  impressive  sights  in  Scot- 
land. 

In  1270  and  again  in  1390  the  still  unfinished 
Cathedral  was  nearly  destroyed  by  fire,  the  latter  dis- 
aster being  the  work  of  the  wicked  Earl  of  Buehan, 
"  The  Wolf  of  Badenoch,"  a  son  of  Robert  II.,  from 
whom  he  held  the  lands  of  Badenoch  in  Inverness-shire. 
Having  been  excommunicated  for  his  conduct  by  the 
Bishop,  he  descended  upon  Forres  and  Elgin  with  his 
fierce  retainers  and  set  fire  to  all  the  buildings.  Even 
the  King  seems  to  have  feared  the  effects  of  so  out- 
rageous and  sacreligious  an  act,  for  he  forced  the 
Earl  to  make  reparation  to  a  certain  extent  and  to  aid 
in  rebuilding  the  Cathedral.  Through  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries  the  work  of  building  and  adorn- 
ment was  carried  on,  but  by  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century-  the  period  of  disaster  and  neglect  was 
close  at  hand.  In  1568  the  Privy  Council  ordered 
the  lead  to  be  taken  from  the  roofs  of  Aberdeen  and 

luYery  little  of  the  original  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity  was 
demolished,  hut  the  whole  edifice  was  doubtless  considerably 
enlarged.  The  transepts  of  the  old  building  were  retained,  and  the 
southern  one  is  standing  to  this  day." — Hist,  of  Moray  and  Xairn, 
Charles  Rampini,  LL.  D. 


Elgin  Cathedral 


ELGIN  OR  MORAY. 


237 


Elgin  Cathedrals  and  sold,  and  from  then  on  the 
process  of  dilapidation  became  rapid.  In  1640  the 
Covenanters  broke  down  the  timber  screen  between 
the  nave  and  the  choir.  Some  fifteen  years  later 
Cromwell's  men  destroyed  the  west  window,  and  on 
Easter  Sunday,  1711,  the  central  tower  fell,  ruining 
the  nave  and  transepts.  Added  to  all  these  misfor- 
tunes there  was  the  usual  thieving  carried  on  briskly 
until  1807,  when  the  building  was  enclosed,  and  a  few 
years  later  it  passed  under  control  of  the  Barons  of 
the  Exchequer.  Enough  still  remains  of  what  was 
called  the  "  Lantern  of  the  North  "  to  bear  witness  to 
its  imposing  size  and  great  beauty  of  detail. 

"  Whether  we  regard  the  extent  and  completeness 
of  the  arrangement  of  the  buildings  or  the  beauty  of 
the  architecture,  Elgin  Cathedral  when  perfect  must 
have  held  a  place  in  the  first  rank  of  our  Scottish 
ecclesiastical  edifices.  It  was  complete  in  all  depart- 
ments, having  a  large  nave  with  double  aisles,  an 
extended  choir  and  presbytery,  north  and  south  tran- 
septs, a  lady  chapel,  and  a  detached  octagonal  chapter 
house.  It  also  possessed  a  great  tower  and  a  spire 
over  the  crossing,  two  noble  towers  at  the  west  end 
and  two  fine  turrets  at  the  east  end.  Most  of  the 
existing  portions  had  also  the  advantage  of  being 
erected  during  the  thirteenth  century,  at  which  period 
Scottish  architecture  was  at  its  best.  Good  examples 
of  the  Scottish  decorated  period  are  also  represented, 
and  the  testimony  of  ancient  historians  to  the  beauty 


238     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 


of  the  internal  sculpture  and  decoration  is  well  sup- 
ported by  the  fine  fragments  which  still  survive,  of 
which  a  collection  is  formed  in  the  chapter  house. 

"Although  slightly  inferior  in  dimensions  to  our 
larger  Cathedrals  at  St.  Andrews  and  Glasgow,  that 
of  Elgin  is  in  some  respects  superior.  The  splendid 
western  portal  is  undoubtedly  among  the  finest  exam- 
ples of  that  feature  in  Scotland,  if  not  in  Britain,  and 
recalls  rather  the  noble  portals  of  French  architecture 
than  those  of  this  country."  1 

When  the  authorities  took  charge  in  1 824  the  ruin 
was  under  the  care  of  one  John  Shanks,  an  antiquarian 
enthusiast.  His  epitaph,  written  by  Lord  Cockburn 
and  built  into  the  enclosing  wall  of  the  precincts,  states 
that  "  For  seventeen  years  he  was  the  keeper  and  the 
shower  of  this  Cathedral,  and  while  not  even  the 
Crown  was  doing  anything  for  its  preservation,  he 
with  his  own  hands  cleared  it  of  many  thousand  cubic 
yards  of  rubbish,  disclosing  the  bases  of  its  pillars, 
collecting  the  carved  fragments,  and  introducing  some 
order  and  propriety.  Whoso  reverences  the  Cathe- 
dral will  respect  the  memory  of  this  man." 

The  portal  and  the  two  fine  western  towers  are  still 
standing,  as  well  as  the  choir  and  chancel,  south  tran- 
sept, lady  chapel  and  octagonal  chapter  house.  The 
south  aisle  is  the  burying-place  of  the  Gordons,  and 
here  is  seen  the  tomb  of  the  first  Earl  of  Huntly 
(d.  1470). 

1  Ecclesiastical  Architecture  of  Scotland,  MacGibbon  and  Ross. 


ELGIN  OR  MORAY. 


239 


Of  the  manses  of  the  twenty-four  Canons,  the 
Bishop's  town  house,  and  other  buildings  that  once 
stood  within  the  precincts,  hardly  anything  remains. 
Two  of  the  manses  are  incorporated  in  what  are 
known  as  the  North  and  South  Colleges. 

The  Episcopal  residence  was  the  Castle  of  Spynie, 
which  stood  (before  this  was  drained)  on  the  Loch  of 
Spynie,  a  couple  of  miles  northeast  of  Elgin.  It  was 
begun  by  Bishop  John  Innes  (1407-1414).  About 
fifty  years  later,  when  David  Stewart  was  Bishop, 
the  Earl  of  Huntly  was  reported  to  have  threatened 
to  pull  the  Bishop  out  of  his  "  pigeon-hole."  This 
led  to  the  construction  of  the  still  existing  powerful 
keep,  called  "Davie's  Tower,"  Stewart  having  de- 
clared that  he  was  purposed  to  put  up  a  dwelling  out 
of  which  the  Earl,  backed  by  his  entire  clan,  would 
not  be  able  to  pull  him.  The  walls  of  this  redoubt- 
able "  house "  are  ten  and  a  half  feet  thick,  and  are 
furnished  with  embrasures  for  large  guns.  On  the 
south  front  are  seen  the  arms  of  David  Stewart  and 
of  the  profligate  Bishop  Patrick  Hepburn,  last  Roman 
Catholic  holder  of  the  See,  and  uncle  of  the  Earl  of 
Both  well,  who  may  have  imbibed  from  him  his  loose 
notions  of  morality. 

Spynie  was  one  of  three  places  where  the  Episcopal 
seat  was  established  previous  to  the  selection  of  Elgin 
for  that  honor.  About  equally  distant  from  Elgin  on 
the  south  is  another  of  these  places — Birnie — whose 
ancient  Norman  church  is  in  excellent  preservation, 


240     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

and  is  still  used  as  a  place  of  worship.  It  was  prob- 
ably built  in  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  century, 
but  contains  two  objects  of  an  earlier  date — the  Nor- 
man stone  font  and  a  Celtic  altar  bell  with  square 
sides — which  may  point  to  the  existence  on  the  site 
of  an  earlier  Celtic  church.  According  to  local  tradi- 
tion, prayers  said  three  times  in  Birnie  Church  will 
"  either  mend  ye  or  end  ye." 

Beyond  Birnie,  running  in  a  southwesterly  direc- 
tion, is  the  Glen  of  Rothes,  and  beyond  this  again 
are  the  scanty  remains  of  Rothes  Castle,  once  the 
chief  seat  of  the  Leslies,  Earls  of  Rothes.  In  the 
adjoining  woods  it  is  said  that  the  hunted  and  per- 
secuted Covenanting  ministers  used  to  take  refuge 
during  the  evil  days  of  Charles  II.'s  reign,  the 
Lady  of  Rothes,  a  zealous  Covenanter,  giving  them 
food  and  such  protection  as  lay  in  her  power.  Her 
husband,  afterwards  Duke  of  Rothes,  was,  on  the 
contrary,  not  only  a  notorious  drunkard  and  loose 
liver,  but  in  the  exercise  of  his  duties  as  Chancellor 
was  accounted  a  formidable  enemy  of  the  Covenant- 
ers. Nevertheless  a  pleasant  tradition  tells  how,  on 
the  arrival  of  a  new  warrant  from  the  Privy  Council 
ordering  fresh  arrests  to  be  made,  he  would  drop  the 
following  hint  to  his  wife :  "  My  Lady,  my  hawks 
maun  be  abroad  the  morn ;  ye  had  better  look  after 
your  blackbirds." 

About  half  a  dozen  miles  southwest  from  Elgin  are 
the  picturesque,  ivy-clad  ruins  of  Pluscarden  Priory, 


ELGIN  OR  MORAY. 


241 


established  in  1230  by  Alexander  II.  for  monks  of 
the  Burgundian  Order  of  Vallis  Caulium.  By  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Priory  was  nearly 
deserted,  and  had  fallen  into  neglect  and  disrepair. 
At  the  Reformation  it  appears  to  have  been  looked 
upon  as  too  insignificant  to  require  "purging,"  and 
the  monks  were  permitted  to  die  out  in  peace.  It  was 
there  that  the  Liber  Pluscardensis  was  written,  about 
1461 — a  chronicle  of  Scottish  history  down  to  James 
I.'s  death.  Lord  Bute,  who  lately  acquired  the  prop- 
erty, keeps  the  buildings  in  good  order.  They  con- 
sist mainly  of  the  naveless  church,  with  its  choir, 
transepts  and  great  square  tower,  the  sacristy  (called 
St.  Mary's  Aisle),  and  the  chapter  house  and  monks' 
hall  on  the  south  of  the  cloisters. 

Yet  another  noteworthy  ecclesiastical  establishment 
in  Elgin  was  the  Cistercian  Abbey  of  Kinloss,  the 
legendary  history  of  whose  founding  by  David  I.  is 
almost  identical  with  that  of  Holyrood.  To  Robert 
Reid,  made  Abbot  in  1526,  and  the  French  gardener 
he  brought  with  him,  the  district  owes  the  many  fine 
varieties  of  apples  and  pears  for  which  it  is  still 
famous.  Abbot  Reid  bequeathed  by  will  a  sum  of 
four  thousand  marks  towards  the  establishment  of  a 
college  in  Edinburgh,  which  however  his  executors 
did  not  carry  out.  The  Town  Council,  twenty-four 
years  after  his  death,  demanded  the  money  for  their 
new  Protestant  College,  and  at  the  request  of  King 
James  VI.  the  matter  was  compromised  by  a  pay- 
Vol.  II.— 16 


242     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 

ment  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  marks  from  the 
Abbot's  estate ;  and  thus  Reid  may  be  said  to  have 
been  the  earliest  benefactor  of  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh. He  was  one  of  the  Commissioners  who  died 
at  Dieppe  in  1550  under  suspicion  of  having  been 
poisoned,  after  their  refusal  to  bestow  the  Scottish 
crown  matrimonial  upon  the  Dauphin  on  his  marriage 
with  Queen  Mary. 

Kinloss  is  near  the  head  of  Findhorn  Bay,  and 
along  the  Findhorn  River,  from  a  point  about  four 
miles  west  of  Kinloss  to  Dulsie  Bridge  in  Nairn,  is 
some  of  the  most  beautiful  scenery  in  Moray.  The  river 
runs  for  some  distance  through  the  forest  of  Darnaway, 
belonging  to  Darnaway  Castle,  an  ancient  scat  of  the 
Earls  of  Moray.  The  large  existing  hall,  with  its  fine 
open  timber  roof  (the  oldest  left  in  Scotland),  was 
built  in  1430  by  Archibald  Douglas,  Earl  of  Moray. 

On  an  island  in  Loch-in-Dorbh,  in  the  southern 
part  of  Elgin,  is  another  fortress  that  came  to  Archi- 
bald Douglas  with  the  Earldom  of  Moray.  Origin- 
ally it  was  a  stronghold  of  the  Comyns,  Lords  of 
Badenoch,  and  was  held  by  the  Red  Corny n,  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Kingdom,  when  Edward  I.  besieged  and 
took  it  in  1303.  In  the  latter  part  of  that  century  it 
was  held  by  the  "Wolf  of  Badenoch,"  and  when  the 
ruin  of  the  house  of  Douglas  was  accomplished  by 
James  II.,  the  Laird  of  Cawdor  was  given  a  royal 
warrant  to  dismantle  it.  The  ruin  is  now  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Earl  of  Seafield. 


ELGIN  OR  MORAY. 


243 


The  southern  and  Highland  part  of  Elgin — Strath- 
spey— is  the  country  of  the  Grants,  John  le  Grant 
having  obtained  certain  lands  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Spey  from  Robert  Bruce  in  1316.  Freuchie,  where 
Castle  Grant  now  stands,  has  been  the  chief  seat  of 
the  family  since  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
But  the  clan  takes  its  war  cry,  "  Stand  fast,  Craigella- 
chie  "  (creag-eagalach — rock  of  alarm),  from  a  rocky 
height  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Spey  near  Aviemore  in 
Inverness-shire.  The  Grants  and  Gordons  were  old- 
time  allies  and  could  usually  count  upon  each  others' 
support  in  raids  upon  the  neighboring  lairds.  It  is 
told,  therefore,  that  when  the  Earl  of  Huntly  (the 
murderer  of  the  Bonny  Earl  of  Moray)  wished  on  one 
occasion  to  chastise  the  Farquharsons  for  the  killing  of 
a  Gordon,  he  arranged  with  the  Laird  of  Grant  that 
the  latter  should  advance  down  the  Dee  Valley  simul- 
taneously with  his  own  approach  from  the  lower  end, 
so  as  to  shut  the  Farquharsons  in  between  two  fires. 

The  surprise  was  so  complete  that  the  unfortunate 
clan  was  nearly  exterminated  and  an  enormous  num- 
ber of  children  made  orphans  and  homeless.  These 
Huntly  took  to  the  Bog  of  Gight,  where  they  were 
treated  so  much  like  animals  that  in  time  they  grew 
to  be  like  them.  It  is  alleged  that  the  head  of  the 
Grants,  visiting  at  Bog  of  Gight  a  year  or  more  later, 
was  shown  for  his  amusement  the  spectacle  of  a  long 
wooden  trough  outside  the  kitchen,  into  which  all  the 
cold  scraps  and  odds  and  ends  of  food  from  the  table 


244     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

had  been  thrown.  At  a  given  signal  a  door  was 
opened  and  a  troop  of  little,  half-naked  savages  rushed 
in,  and  falling  on  the  trough  fought  and  tore  for  the 
food.  Grant  was  really  shocked  on  being  told  that 
these  were  the  orphans  he  had  helped  to  make.  He 
got  Huntly's  permission  to  take  them  away  with  him, 
saw  to  their  care  and  training,  and  gradually  they 
became  absorbed  into  his  clan. 

Huntly's  Cave,  on  the  Freuchie  estate,  is  so  called 
from  having  been  the  hiding-place,  in  the  troublous 
period  of  the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
of  Lord  Lewis  Gordon,  afterwards  third  Marquis  of 
Huntly. 

Young  Mary  Grant,  sister  of  the  Laird,  having  dis- 
covered his  retreat,  herself  undertook  the  dangerous 
task  of  supplying  him  with  food,  with  the  romantic 
result  that  they  fell  in  love  with  one  another,  and 
when  more  peaceful  days  came  were  happily  married. 

The  political  tenets  of  the  Grants  seem  to  have  been 
of  that  accommodating  order  that  adapts  itself  to  the 
party  in  power,  and  we  find  them  siding  now  with  the 
Royalists,  now  with  the  Covenanters,  though  their 
dislike  and  jealousy  of  Montrose  usually  inclined  them 
to  support  the  party  that  opposed  him.  During  the 
risings  of  the  '15  and  '45  the  chiefs  remained  loyal  to 
the  House  of  Hanover,  and  though  not  lendiug  any 
very  active  assistance,  they  at  least  prevented  their 
clansmen  from  going  out  to  any  extent. 

"  The  Laird  of  Grant  was  very  zealous  at  the  Revo- 


NAIRN. 


245 


lution,"  writes  the  anonymous  author  of  The  Highlands 
of  Scotland  in  1750/  "  but  he  and  his  men  suffered  so 
much  by  the  depredations  of  the  Camerons  and 
McDonalds  that  they  behaved  with  more  caution  than 
zeal  in  the  time  of  the  late  Rebellion.  They  cer- 
tainly were  in  a  bad  situation,  hemmed  in  between 
the  Gordons  and  Clan  Chattan  tribes;  but  never- 
theless a  true  spirit  and  zeal  for  Religion  and  Liberty 
might  have  induced  them  to  behave  better  than  to 
enter  into  a  neutrality  with  Rebels." 

NAIRN. 

Returning  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  coast  and  cross- 
ing the  border  into  Nairnshire,  we  come  at  Auldearn 
to  the  scene  of  one  of  Montrose's  most  signal  victories. 
The  battle  (9th  May,  1645)  began  with  an  attack  by 
the  Covenanters  under  General  Hurry.  The  Irish 
leader,  Alastair  Macdonald  (Colkitto),  having  been 
inveigled  out  of  a  strong  position  to  engage  in  an 
unequal  fight  in  the  open,  was  overpowered  and  forced 
to  retreat  with  the  remnant  of  his  men.  It  is  said 
that  Montrose,  on  having  this  intelligence  hurriedly 
whispered  to  him  by  an  orderly,  instantly  exclaimed 
aloud :  "  Macdonald  gaining  the  victory  single-handed ! 
Come,  my  Lord  Gordon,  is  he  to  be  allowed  to  carry 
all  before  him  and  leave  no  laurels  for  the  House  of 

1  From  MS.  104  in  the  King's  Library,  British  Museum,  published 
in  1898.   Edited  by  Andrew  Lang. 


246     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Huntly?" — a  hint  that  the  impetuous  Gordon  was 
not  slow  to  follow,  and  his  attack  and  rout  of  the 
enemy's  right  wing,  followed  up  by  Montrose's  charge 
at  the  head  of  the  main  body,  resulted  in  a  complete 
and  bloody  victory. 

Major  Drummond,  who  left  the  field  at  the  head  of 
his  men  at  a  critical  moment,  was  tried  and  shot  as  a 
traitor,  and  General  Hurry,  who  shortly  afterwards 
deserted  to  the  King's  side  and  was  hanged  in  1650  at 
the  same  time  as  Montrose,  was  also  accused  of  play- 
ing into  the  enemy's  hands  at  Auldearn ;  and  to  the 
action  of  these  two  officers  the  Covenanters  attributed 
their  defeat.  In  the  '45  Moray  and  Nairn  remained, 
with  unimportant  exceptions,  loyal  to  the  Government. 

On  the  day  before  Culloden  the  Duke  of  Cumber- 
land halted  his  army  in  Nairn,  and  there  his  birthday 
was  celebrated  with  feastings  and  revelry  (15th  April, 
1746).  The  Prince's  army  meanwhile  was  at  Cullo- 
den, only  twelve  miles  distant,  and  owing  to  the  mis- 
management of  John  Hay  of  JRestalrig,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded John  Murray  of  Broughton  in  the  charge  of 
the  commissariat  shortly  before,  was  occupied  in  any- 
thing but  feasting,  being  in  fact  half  starved.  It  is 
probably  largely  due  to  this  circumstance  that  the 
well-planned  night  attack  on  the  Government  force  at 
Nairn  miscarried,  as  the  weary  and  hungry  army  was 
still  three  miles  from  the  English  outposts  when  the 
coming  of  dawn  forced  them  to  retrace  their  steps. 

Nairn  is  on  the  line  that  separates  the  Highlands 


247 


from  the  Lowlands,  a  line  so  far  from  being  an 
imaginary  one  that,  while  the  southwest  side  was  still 
inhabited  by  Highlanders  speaking  the  Gaelic  tongue, 
the  other  side,  on  the  northeast,  was  wholly  given  up 
to  English-speaking  fisher-folk,  and  this  circumstance 
gave  James  VI.  his  traditional  boast,  made  to  the 
English  courtiers,  that  one  of  his  Scottish  towns  was 
so  large  that  the  people  at  one  end  could  not  under- 
stand the  language  spoken  at  the  other. 

About  five  miles  southwest  from  Nairn,  on  the 
Cawdor  Burn,  rises  the  imposing  mass  of  the  Castle 
of  Cawdor,  or  Calder,  probably  occupying  the  site  of 
an  earlier  fortress.  From  Robert  Bruce,  William  of 
Cawdor  obtained  a  formal  acknowledgment  of  his  and 
his  descendants'  rights  as  chiefs  of  Cawdor,  as  his 
ancestors  had  been  before  him.  James  II.  gave  to 
the  then  laird,  a  personal  favorite,  permission  to  build 
a  Castle  in  Nairn  (1454),  and  tradition  recounts  that 
he  placed  a  chest  of  money  on  an  ass's  back,  and, 
starting  the  animal  off,  declared  he  would  build  wher- 
ever it  halted.  Any  inconveniences  that  might  have 
resulted  from  this  method  of  choosing  a  site  were 
averted  by  the  truly  remarkable  judgment  displayed 
by  the  ass.  Proceeding  towards  the  Cawdor  Burn,  it 
glanced  indifferently  at  the  first  hawthorn  tree  it 
came  to,  brushed  up  against  the  second,  and  on  reach- 
ing a  third  came  to  a  halt — in  fact,  to  prevent  any 
mistake,  lay  down.  And  on  that  spot,  which  in  truth 
was  admirably  adapted  to  the  purpose,  the  Castle  was 


248     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

built.  In  the  vaulted  store-room  on  the  ground  floor 
there  is  still  seen  the  stem  of  the  hawthorn  tree, 
standing  where  it  grew.  The  iron  gate  at  the  en- 
trance to  the  Castle  is  from  Lochindorb,  and  another 
legend  tells  that  the  same  laird  who  built  Cawdor 
Castle,  having  been  commanded  to  dismantle  Lochin- 
dorb  on  the  downfall  of  the  Douglases,  carried  the 
gate  all  the  way  to  Cawdor  on  his  shoulders.  In 
1510  the  property  passed  from  its  ancient  possessors 
into  the  hands  of  the  Campbells,  through  the  mar- 
riage of  the  heiress,  Muriel,  to  Sir  John  Campbell, 
a  son  of  the  second  Earl  of  Argyll.  Her  mother 
was  one  of  the  Roses  of  Kilravock,  and  the  little 
girl  was  being  brought  up  by  them,  when  the  Earl 
of  Argyll,  in  order  to  secure  her  in  marriage  for  his 
son,  sent  a  party  of  Campbells  and  carried  her  off 
bodily,  after  a  sharp  fight  with  her  uncles  and  the 
loss  of  a  number  of  his  own  men.  Such  were  the 
gentle  wooings  of  the  time.  Most  of  the  present 
Castle — except  the  keep,  which  belongs  to  the  fif- 
teenth century — dates  from  the  second  half  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  when  Sir  Hugh  Campbell  re- 
modeled the  whole  building. 

Across  the  Nairn  and  west  from  Cawdor  is  Kil- 
ravock (pronounced  Kilrock),  the  seat  of  the  Roses 
since  the  thirteenth  century.  "  For  six  hundred 
years  and  more  there  has  always  been  a  Baron  of 
Kilravock,  son  succeeding  father  in  the  possession  of 
the  family  estates,  without  the  interposition  of  any 


EOSS  AND  CEOMAETY. 


249 


collateral  heir,  almost  every  one  bearing  the  Chris- 
tian name  of  Hugh,  and  none  but  one  ever  rising 
to  higher  social  rank." 

The  romantic  old  Castle  of  Kilravock  is  only  about 
five  miles  from  Culloden-Muir,  and  on  the  day  before 
the  battle  Prince  Charles  visited  the  laird,  who  was  not 
a  Jacobite,  and  remained  to  dinner.  There  is  a  tradi- 
tion that  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  also  called  there 
the  next  morning,  on  his  way  with  his  army  to  Cul- 
loden.  "You  have  had  my  cousin  Charles  here/' 
was  his  greeting  to  the  laird;  to  which  the  other 
replied,  "Not  having  an  army  to  keep  him  out,  I 
could  not  prevent  him."  "You  did  perfectly  right," 
replied  the  Duke. 


EOSS  AND  CEOMAETY. 

Northwest  of  Nairn,  across  the  Moray  Firth,  is  the 
large,  wholly  Highland  County  of  Ross  and  Cro- 
marty, whose  territory,  in  the  old  days  of  the  clans,  was 
held  mainly  by  the  Mackenzies  and  the  Rosses,  and 
the  Munroes  whose  country  lies  on  the  northwestern 
shore  of  the  Cromarty  Firth.  Of  the  Munroes,  the 
author  of  The  Highlands  of  Scotland  in  1750,  says: 
"'Tis  well  known  the  part  they  acted  in  1715  and 
during  the  late  Rebellion.  The  Gentlemen  of  this 
Clan  are  all  Firm  and  Steady  to  a  man,  and  the 
Commons  are  well-affected,  Honest,  Industrious  and 
Religious  People.    Those  who  call  them  Enthusi- 


250     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOM ANTIC. 

astical,  Revengefull  and  Lazy  do  not  know  them,  or 
are  highly  prejudiced  against  them.  Tho?  their 
Country  is  mostly  a  Sour,  Wet  Soil,  and  the  Cro- 
martie  Firth  not  so  good  for  Fishing  as  the  other 
Seas  in  the  Neighborhood,  yet  they  have  Bread  in 
Plenty  and  Live  Comfortably."  Sir  Robert  Munro, 
the  chief  of  the  clan,  and  his  brother  were  killed  at 
Falkirk  in  1746,  fighting  for  King  George,  and  a 
third  brother  was  murdered  by  Highland  outlaws 
shortly  after. 

Between  the  Moray  Firth  and  the  Cromarty  Firth 
is  a  peninsula  called  the  Black  Isle.  On  its  east 
coast  is  situated  the  burgh  of  Fortrose,  which  in- 
cludes the  two  towns  of  Chanonry  and  Rosemarkie. 
Here  was  once  an  important  ecclesiastical  centre — the 
seat  of  the  bishopric  of  Ross,  founded  by  David  I. 
in  the  twelfth  century.  Only  the  chapter  house  and 
the  south  aisle  of  the  nave  and  chancel  are  left  of 
the  once  imposing  fourteenth-century  cathedral.  It 
was  destroyed  by  Cromwell  and  the  materials  used  to 
build  a  fort  at  Inverness. 

Tradition  tells  that  the  fairies  of  Moray  liked  the 
cathedral  originally  built  at  Fortrose  so  much  better 
than  the  one  on  their  own  side  of  the  Firth  that  one 
night  they  set  to  work  to  change  them,  and  when 
morning  broke  the  Elgin  Cathedral  was  at  Fortrose 
and  the  Fortrose  Cathedral  at  Elgin,  where  they  have 
ever  since  remained.  Only  the  fairies  had  not  time 
quite  to  destroy  the  causeway  they  had  thrown  across 


EOSS  AND  CEOMARTY. 


251 


the  Moray  Firth ;  so  that  to  this  day  the  two  ends 
can  be  seen  jutting  out,  the  one  from  Chanonry  Ness, 
the  other  from  Ardersier  Point. 

Red  Castle,  a  modernized  building  occupying  the 
site  of  William  the  Lion's  Fortress  of  Ederdour,  is  in 
the  south  of  the  Black  Isle ;  and  near  it  on  the  west 
is  the  now  restored  Castle  of  Kilcoy,  built  in  the 
early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  by  Alexander 
Mackenzie,  son  of  Mackenzie  of  Kintail.  Another 
Mackenzie  stronghold  of  about  the  same  date  is  the 
lofty  and  striking  tower  of  Fairburn,  which  stands 
further  to  the  west,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Orrin. 
Near  StrathpefFer  is  the  fine  Castle  Leod,  built  about 
1616  by  Sir  Rory  Mackenzie,  the  famous  Tutor  of 
Kintail  and  founder  of  the  Tarbat  Mackenzies,  Earls 
of  Cromartie.  This  personage,  though  he  lived  but 
forty-eight  years,  contrived  in  that  short  space  to 
acquire  vast  estates  in  Ross  and  Cromarty  (including 
the  island  of  Lewis,  the  hereditary  possession  of  the 
Macleods),  and  to  make  his  name  so  to  be  dreaded 
by  the  restless  and  turbulent  chiefs  of  the  neighboring 
districts  as  to  give  rise  to  a  Gaelic  saying,  "  There  are 
two  things  worse  than  the  Tutor  of  Kintail :  frost  in 
spring  and  mist  in  the  dog-days." 

At  Ferintosh,  at  the  west  end  of  the  Black  Isle, 
is  Ryefield  Lodge,  belonging  to  the  Forbeses  of 
Culloden.  The  name  is  a  reminder  of  a  former 
privilege  possessed  by  the  family,  L  e.,  the  free  right 
of  distilling  whisky  from  home-grown  grain.  This 


252     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

privilege  was  granted  to  Duncan  Forbes,  father  of 
President  Forbes,  as  a  reward  for  bis  patriotic  services 
in  promoting  the  use  of  home-made  instead  of  foreign, 
smuggled  spirits. 

At  Dingwall,  a  town  on  the  northwest  shore  of  the 
Cromarty  Firth,  is  seen  an  excellent  example  of  the 
fast-disappearing  old  Scottish  Tolbooth.  Another  of 
these  interesting  survivals  of  a  distinctively  Scottish 
style  of  architecture  is  in  the  ancient  town  of  Tain, 
ou  the  Dornoch  Firth.  This  is  the  reputed  birth- 
place (about  1 000)  of  St.  Duthus,  "  Confessor  of  Ire- 
land and  Scotland."  The  little  old  granite  chapel 
dedicated  to  him  was  a  far-famed  sanctuary,  ruth- 
lessly violated  however  by  the  Earl  of  Ross  in  1306, 
when  he  seized  therein  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Eobert 
Bruce,  her  step-daughter  Marjory,  and  all  their  at- 
tendants. Of  these  the  males  were  put  to  death  by 
Edward  L,  and  the  ladies  imprisoned  until  the  year 
1314.  The  sanctuary  was  a  favorite  place  of  pilgrim- 
age of  the  Scottish  kings.  Thither  went  James  IV. 
once  a  year  to  do  penance  for  rebelling  against  his 
father;  and  the  path  across  the  moors  called  the 
"King's  Highway"  is  said  to  be  so  named  from 
James  V.  having  traversed  it  barefoot  in  1528. 

It  is  averred  that  this  pilgrimage  of  the  King  had 
been  urged  upon  him  by  his  priestly  advisers  for  a 
particular  purpose ;  for  it  was  while  he  was  thus 
safely  employed  in  an  out-of-the-way  spot  that  Patrick 
Hamilton,  protomartyr  of  the  Scottish  Reformation, 


ROSS  AND  CROMARTY. 


253 


was  tried  for  heresy  at  St.  Andrews,  and  burned  at 
the  stake  on  the  same  day  on  which  judgment  was 
given  (February  29,  1528).  He  was  very  young — 
not  more  than  twenty-six — was  highly  gifted,  a  great- 
grandson  (through  his  mother)  of  James  II.,  and  had 
but  recently  been  married.  These  circumstances, 
added  to  the  fact  of  his  being  the  first  to  suffer 
death  for  the  Reformed  faith  (whose  principles  he 
had  imbibed  from  Luther  himself  on  the  Continent), 
and  also  his  lofty  and  unwavering  courage  through- 
out the  prolonged  torture  of  his  death,  accomplished 
more  towards  spreading  the  "heretical"  doctrines 
he  professed  than  years  of  preaching  would  have 
done.  It  was  said  that  "  the  reek  of  Patrick  Ham- 
ilton infected  all  it  blew  on."  Hamilton  when  a 
mere  boy  had  been  made  lay  Abbot  of  Fearn — an 
abbey  standing  a  few  miles  from  Tain,  peopled  with 
monks  from  Whithorn  early  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  oldest  parts  of  the  still  existing  church  date  from 
the  fourteenth  century,  when  the  abbey  was  rebuilt. 
"After  the  Reformation  it  was  used  as  a  parish  church, 
until  one  fatal  autumn  Sunday  morning  of  the  year 
1742,  when  the  congregation  being  peacefully  assem- 
bled for  worship,  the  heavy  stone  roof  suddenly  gave 
way.  .  .  .  Nearly  half  the  people  were  buried  in  the 
ruins,  and  they  could  see  through  the  shattered  win- 
dows men  all  covered  with  blood  and  dust,  yelling 
like  maniacs,  and  tearing  up  the  stones  and  slates 
that  were  heaped  over  their  wives  and  children.  .  .  . 


254     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Thirty-six  persons  were  killed  on  the  spot,  and  many 
more  were  so  dreadfully  injured  that  they  never 
recovered.  The  tombstones  were  covered  over  with 
dead  bodies,  some  of  them  so  fearfully  gashed  and 
mangled  that  they  could  scarce  be  recognized,  and  the 
paths  that  wended  through  the  churchyard  literally 
ran  with  blood." 1  Many  lives  were  saved  through  the 
presence  of  mind  of  the  powerful  minister,  Robertson 
of  Gairloch,  by  whose  unaided  strength  the  south  Avail 
was  propped  up  and  kept  from  falling. 

Fearn  is  in  the  country  of  the  Rosses — one  of 
whom,  Ferquhard,  Earl  of  Ross  in  Alexander  II.'s 
time,  was  its  founder.  This  clan  remained  so  loyal  to 
the  House  of  Hanover  that  only  about  thirty  went  out 
in  the  '45  "of  the  Refuse  of  the  Commons  [under 
Malcolm  Ross  younger  of  Pitcalney],  as  they  abhorred 
the  design." 

One  ancient  Castle,  Ballone,  built  by  an  Earl 
of  Ross,  stands,  a  picturesque  and  imposing  ruin, 
on  the  Tarbat  Isthmus,  overlooking  the  German 
Ocean.  Very  little  is  known  of  its  history,  but  it 
was  certainly  held  at  one  time  by  the  Earls  of 
Cromarty  and  later  by  another  branch  of  the  powerful 
Mackenzie  clan,  itself  descended  from  a  younger  son 
of  "Gilleon  na  h'airde,"  the  ancestor  of  the  tribe  Ross. 
"The  MacKenzies  of  Tarbat,"  writes  Sir  William 
Fraser  in  the  Introduction  to  The  Earls  of  Cromartie, 
"who  were  ennobled  as  Earls  of  Cromartie,  are  a 

1  Scenes  and  Legends  of  the  North  of  Scotland,  Hugh  Miller. 


ROSS  AND  CROMARTY. 


255 


branch  of  the  MacKenzies,  Earls  of  Seaforth,  an 
ancient,  powerful  and  distinguished  clan,  long  in  pos- 
session of  the  Barony  of  Ellandonan,  including  Kin- 
tail  and  other  properties  in  the  County  of  Eoss,  com- 
monly called  the  Seaforth  estates."  Kenneth  Mac- 
kenzie of  Kintail  was  created  Lord  Mackenzie  of 
Kintail  by  James  VI.  in  1609,  and  fourteen  years  later 
his  son  and  successor  Colin,  called  the  Red  Earl,  was 
made  Earl  of  Seaforth.  The  great-nephew  of  the  Red 
Earl  having  gone  abroad  with  James  VII.  and  died 
in  Paris,  his  son  engaged  in  the  '15  and  was  one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  attempt  of  1719.  The  Earl,  with 
the  Marquis  Tullibardine  and  the  Earl  Marischal, 
landed  in  Kintail  (April  13)  with  about  three  hundred 
Spanish  troops  and  chose  for  their  headquarters  Ellan- 
donan Castle.  This  ancient  stronghold  of  the  Mac- 
kenzies  crowns  the  summit  of  a  small  rocky  island  at 
the  junction  of  Lochs  Alsh,  Duich  and  Long,  in 
southwestern  Ross-shire.  Here  the  Jacobites  stored 
their  ammunition  and  provisions,  placing  a  garrison 
of  Spaniards  in  charge  ;  but  three  ships- of- war  from  a 
British  squadron  attacked  the  Castle  in  May,  and  after 
bombarding  it  for  some  hours  reduced  it,  taking  the 
garrison  prisoners,  blowing  up  the  ammunition  and 
setting  fire  to  the  stores.  These  very  serious  losses 
had  a  disheartening  effect  upon  the  Jacobites,  and  the 
business  of  raising  recruits  did  not  advance  very 
rapidly.  By  the  10th  of  June,  however,  such  of  the 
clansmen  as  were  willing  to  go  out,  having  been  assem- 


256     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

bled  in  a  strong  position  in  Glenshiel,  it  was  deter- 
mined to  give  battle.  Tbe  Higblanders  and  tbeir 
Spanish  auxiliaries  oceupied  tbe  hill  which  commands 
tbe  glen  at  a  point  where  tbe  River  Shiel  is  now 
crossed  by  a  bridge,  about  five  miles  from  Inversbiel. 
The  battle,  which  began  before  six  in  tbe  morning  and 
lasted  about  three  hours,  ended  in  a  complete  defeat ; 
tbe  Highlanders  scattered  to  their  mountains  and  tbe 
Spaniards,  acting  on  tbe  advice  of  the  Jacobite  leaders, 
surrendered  as  prisoners  of  war.  Tbe  Earl  of  Seaforth 
was  wounded,  but  contrived  to  escape  with  the  other 
leaders  to  France,  where  for  many  years  he  lived  upon 
tbe  rents  from  his  (forfeited)  estates.  In  vain  did 
Government  send  troops  from  time  to  time  to  take 
possession  of  these.  The  clansmen  offered  armed  re- 
sistance and  in  every  instance  were  victorious.  In 
1725  the  Commissioners  of  Inquiry  reported  their 
failure  to  sell  the  Seaforth  estate  because  of  "not 
having  been  able  to  obtain  possession  and  conse- 
quently to  give  the  same  to  a  purchaser."  And  all 
the  while  tbe  tenants  faithfully  paid  in  their  rents  to 
Donald  Murchison,  son  of  the  Castellan  of  Ellandonan, 
"  a  kinsman  and  servant  to  the  Earl  of  Seaforth,  bred 
a  writer  [lawyer],  a  man  of  small  stature,  but  full  of 
spirit  and  resolution  " — who  found  means  to  forward 
tbe  money  to  the  absent  chief.  It  is  said  that  Sea- 
forth's  cold  ingratitude,  after  bis  pardon,  for  so  much 
faithfulness  and  devotion  so  preyed  upon  Murchison 
that  he  died  of  a  broken  heart.    The  Earl  made  his 


ROSS  AND  CROMARTY. 


257 


peace  with  King  George  in  1726  and  died  before 
the  '45. 

His  son,  known  as  Lord  Fortrose  (for  the  Seaforth 
title  was  forfeited),  evidently  thought  the  family  had 
suffered  enough  in  the  Stuart  interests,  and  at  the 
Rising  he  refused  to  join.  "  Tho'  the  present  Seaforth 
(Fortrose)  is  Hearty  and  Zealous  for  the  Government, 
he  has  not  yet  been  able  to  Cure  the  Gentlemen  of  his 
Clan  of  a  Disease  they  have  been  so  long  contracting, 
but  they  are  Recovering  Slowly  and  by  Degrees." 
Lady  Fortrose,  in  spite  of  her  husband,  raised  a  body 
of  Mackenzies  for  Prince  Charles.  Seaforth's  relative, 
George,  third  Earl  of  Cromarty,  went  out  and  nearly 
lost  his  life  in  consequence.  He  was  condemned  for 
high  treason  at  Westminster  at  the  same  time  as  the 
Earl  of  Kilmarnock  and  Lord  Balmerino,  but  alone 
of  the  three  was  pardoned.  This  was  mainly  due  to 
the  spirited  efforts  of  his  wife,  the  beautiful  "Bonnie 
Bell  Gordon."  Not  only  did  this  devoted  lady  pre- 
sent petitions  to  each  of  the  Lords  of  the  Cabinet 
Council,  but  on  "  the  Sunday  following  the  sentence 
she  went  to  Kensington  Palace  in  deep  mourning, 
accompanied  by  Lady  Stair,  to  intercede  with  his 
Majesty  in  behalf  of  her  husband.  She  was  a  woman 
of  great  strength  of  mind,  and  though  far  advanced 
in  pregnancy,  had  hitherto  displayed  surprising  forti- 
tude ;  but  on  the  present  trying  occasion  she  gave  way 
to  grief.  She  took  her  station  in  the  entrance  through 
which  the  King  had  to  pass  to  chapel,  and  when  he 
Vol.  II.— 17 


258     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


approached  she  fell  upon  her  knees,  seized  him  by  the 
coat,  and  presenting  her  supplication,  fainted  away  at 
his  feet.  The  King  immediately  raised  her  up,  and 
taking  the  petition,  gave  it  in  charge  of  the  Duke  of 
Grafton,  one  of  his  attendants.  He  theu  desired  Lady 
Stair  to  conduct  her  to  one  of  the  apartments.  The 
Dukes  of  Hamilton  and  Montrose,  the  Earl  of  Stair 
and  other  courtiers  backed  these  petitions  for  the  Royal 
mercy  by  a  personal  application  to  the  King,  who 
granted  a  pardon  to  the  Earl  on  the  ninth  of  August " 
(1746). 

A  few  miles  from  Ardgay  in  northeastern  Ross-shire 
occurred  the  final  defeat  and  overthrow  of  Montrose. 
He  had  landed  in  March,  1650,  with  a  small  force  on 
one  of  the  Orkney  Islands,  and  having  procured  some 
recruits,  proceeded  to  the  mainland  to  make  what 
proved  to  be  his  final  effort  in  support  of  the  royal 
house  he  had  served  so  faithfully.  A  force  sent  under 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Strachen  to  check  his  advance 
surprised  and  defeated  him  at  the  battle  of  Carbis- 
dale,  or  Invercharron,  in  the  Kyles  of  Sutherland,  on 
April  27,  1650. 

The  men  of  Orkney  at  the  first  charge  threw  down 
their  arms  and  cried  for  quarter;  the  others  were 
overpowered  and  driven  into  the  woods,  where  the 
greater  part  of  them  were  either  slain  or  captured. 
Montrose  made  his  escape  on  Lord  Frendraught's 
horse,  swam  the  Kyle,  and  then,  abandoning  his 
horse,  exchanged  his  dress  for  that  of  a  Highland 


SUTHERLAND. 


259 


peasant,  throwing  away  even  his  cloak,  with  the  Star 
of  the  Garter,  and  his  sword.  Thus  disguised,  he 
wandered  for  two  whole  days  and  a  night,  without 
food  or  cover,  in  the  wild  regions  of  western  Ross- 
shire.  The  Earl  of  Kinnoul,  who  was  with  him, 
sank  from  exhaustion  and  died  somewhere  in  the 
mountains.  After  several  days  the  Marquis  and  his 
sole  companion,  Major  Sinclair  of  Orkney,  were  dis- 
covered by  Macleod  of  Assynt,  in  whose  country 
they  were.  This  chieftain  carried  them  prisoners  to 
his  Castle  of  Ardvreck,  whose  ruins  are  seen  on  the 
north  shore  of  Loch  Assynt,1  and  delivered  them  up 
to  General  Leslie.  After  a  detention  of  two  days  at 
Skibo,  the  prisoners  were  removed  to  Edinburgh. 


SUTHERLAND. 

The  capital  town  of  Sutherlandshire  is  Dornoch,  a 
small,  quiet  place  on  the  southeastern  coast  of  the 
county,  more  famed  for  its  fine  golf  links  than  for 
anything  else.  The  Cathedral,  built  by  Gilbert  de 
Moravia  (1222-,45),  was  burned  by  the  Master  of 
Caithness,  and  Mackay  of  Strathnaver  (1 570)  during 
the  helpless  minority  of  Alexander,  twelfth  Earl  of 
Sutherland ;  and  they  also  destroyed  the  Bishop's 
Palace,  which  stood  opposite.  The  palace  has  been 
repaired  and  is  still  inhabited ;  and  a  part  of  the 

1  The  ruin  on  the  southeast  of  the  Loch  is  Edderchalder  House, 
built  in  1660  by  Kenneth  Mackenzie,  third  Earl  of  Seaforth. 


260     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

central  square  tower  of  the  ancient  cathedral  has 
been  incorporated  with  the  parish  church.  The  stone 
sarcophagus  of  Richard  de  Moravia,  the  founder's 
brother,  is  in  the  north  transept ;  while  in  the  south 
transept  are  the  tombs  of  sixteen  Earls  of  Suther- 
land. This  ancient  house  derives  its  origin  from 
Hugh  Freskin,  a  scion  of  the  Gaelic  tribe  of  Moray, 
who  obtained  from  William  the  Lion  a  grant  of  the 
lands  of  Sutherland,  a  name  given  to  the  district  by 
the  Norwegians  at  a  time  when  Caithness,  on  the 
northeast,  was  their  sole  territory  on  the  mainland  of 
Scotland.  The  fifth  earl  married  a  daughter  of  King 
Robert  Bruce.  In  the  reign  of  James  V.  the  male 
line  died  out,  and  the  heiress  married  a  younger  son 
of  the  Earl  of  Huntly,  thus  bringing  the  title  to  the 
powerful  family  of  Gordon,  with  whom  it  remained 
until  1766.  Once  more  the  title  was  inherited  by  an 
heiress,  who  married  the  Marquis  of  Stafford  and 
brought  the  title  to  the  family  of  Gower,  who  still 
possess  it.  In  the  '15  and  in  the  '45  the  Sutherlands 
were  loyal  to  the  Government  and  influenced  some  of 
the  neighboring  minor  clans  to  pursue  the  same 
policy.  "  In  Lord  Sutherland's  lands  live  a  small, 
but  fierce  clan  of  the  name  of  Gun.  They  are  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  in  number ;  they  have  a  chief- 
tain of  their  own,  who  lives  upon  a  small  mortgage 
not  above  twenty  pounds  per  annum,  but  his  elan 
give  him  a  generous  assistance  to  keep  up  the  gran- 
deur of  a  chieftain.    They  have  been  inhabitants  of 


SUTHERLAND. 


261 


Sutherland  for  above  five  hundred  years,  and  were 
so  much  considered  of  old  that  MacDonald  of  the 
Isles  married  a  daughter  of  the  chief  of  the  Guns."  1 
Dunrobin,  the  seat  of  the  Dukes  of  Sutherland,  is 
a  little  to  the  north  of  the  town  of  Golspie,  near 
the  seacoast.  The  original  keep,  built  by  one  of 
the  Earls  of  Sutherland  before  the  twelfth  century, 
forms  a  part  of  the  later  seventeenth  and  nineteenth 
century  additions.  The  different  suites  of  rooms  are 
called  after  the  names  of  distinguished  persons  who 
have  occupied  them  at  various  times — as  the  Blan- 
tyre  Rooms,  the  Argyll  Rooms,  the  Cromarty  Rooms, 
and  so  on.  The  last  name  commemorates  the  cap- 
ture here  of  George,  Earl  of  Cromarty,  and  his  son, 
Lord  Macleod,  on  the  day  before  the  battle  of  Cul- 
loden,  April  16,  1746.  The  Earl,  while  on  his  way 
to  join  the  Highland  army  at  Inverness,  was  be- 
sieged in  Dunrobin  by  a  force  of  Mackay's  and  the 
Earl  of  Sutherland's  people.  Seeing  no  prospect  of 
relief,  he  summoned  the  two  captains  of  the  besiegers 
to  a  conference  to  discuss  the  terms  of  surrender. 
While  the  discussion  was  proceeding,  "Ensign  Mac- 
kay,  who  had  entered  the  Castle  along  with  the  two 
captains,  went  down  stairs,  and  having  informed  the 
Earl's  men  below  that  he  had  surrendered,  induced 
them  to  deliver  up  their  arms.  Having  secured 
their  arms,  he  took  the  keys  from  the  porter,  and 
opening  the  gates  admitted  his  party.     He  then 

1  The  Highlands  of  Scotland  in  1750. 


262     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

went  up  stairs  with  them,  and  entering  the  dining- 
room,  seized  the  Earl,  Lord  Macleod  and  the  whole 
officers." 1 

On  the  right  bank  of  Helmsdale  Water,  near  the 
town  of  that  name,  are  the  ruins  of  a  hunting  seat 
built  in  1488  by  the  seventh  Countess  of  Suther- 
land, which  was  in  the  following  century  the  scene 
of  a  horrible  tragedy.  In  July,  1567,  John,  Earl 
of  Sutherland,  and  his  Countess,  then  far  advanced 
in  pregnancy,  were  supping  with  Isobel  Sinclair, 
wife  of  Gordon  of  Gartay,  at  Helmsdale.  The 
hostess,  whose  son  would,  in  the  event  of  a  lapse  in 
the  direct  line,  inherit  the  Earldom  of  Sutherland, 
had,  on  the  subtle  suggestion  of  the  Earl  of  Caith- 
ness, poisoned  the  wine  set  aside  for  the  guests'  use. 
But  owing  to  two  unforeseen  circumstances  the  plot 
failed  miserably.  In  the  first  place,  Alexander  Gor- 
don, the  EarPs  fifteen-year-old  son,  whose  death  was 
quite  as  necessary  as  his  own  for  the  success  of  the 
scheme,  arrived  so  late  that  his  father's  suspicions 
had  already  been  aroused  (though  not  in  time  to 
save  himself  or  his  wife),  and  he  sent  the  boy  off 
to  Dunrobin  supperless ;  while  in  the  meantime  the 
young  John  Gordon,  for  whose  sake  his  mother  had 
committed  the  crime,  entered  unexpectedly,  and  being 
very  thirsty,  drank  off  a  goblet  of  the  poisoned  wine 
before  his  wretched  mother  could  prevent  him.  The 
Earl  and  his  Countess  were  taken  to  Dunrobin  on 

1 A  History  of  the  Highlands,  James  Browne. 


SUTHERLAND. 


263 


the  following  morning,  and  there  they  died  and  were 
buried  in  the  Dornoch  Cathedral.  John  Gordon  also 
died,  and  it  was  the  circumstances  attending  his 
death  that  led  to  the  arrest  and  condemnation  of 
his  mother.  She  committed  suicide  in  Edinburgh 
on  the  day  set  for  her  execution. 

In  1766  the  great  Sutherland  estate,  comprising 
most  of  southern  Sutherlandshire,  was  inherited  by 
the  one-year-old  daughter  of  William,  seventeenth 
Earl  of  Sutherland,  and  his  wife,  the  beautiful  step- 
daughter of  Lord  Justice-Clerk  Alva.  The  circum- 
stances leading  to  the  early  deaths  of  this  young 
couple  were  as  follows :  The  Earl,  after  drinking  too 
much  at  dinner  one  evening,  entered  the  drawing- 
room  at  Dunrobin,  and  attempting  to  toss  his  little 
daughter  in  the  air,  let  her  fall,  whereby  she  re- 
ceived some  permanent  injuries.  Remorse  so  preyed 
upon  the  Earl  that  his  health  was  threatened,  and 
his  physician  ordered  him  to  Bath.  There  he  caught 
a  fever,  and  for  three  weeks  was  nursed  by  his  de- 
voted wife,  herself  in  poor  health  at  the  time.  Then 
she  too  was  taken  ill  and  presently  died ;  and, 
although  this  was  carefully  kept  from  the  Earl,  it 
is  said  that  on  the  day  preceding  his  own  death, 
when  in  delirium,  he  would  repeatedly  call  out,  "  I 
am  going  to  join  my  dear  wife  ! 99 1  Their  bodies 
were  taken  to  Edinburgh  and  buried  in  one  grave 
in  the  chapel  at  Holyrood.     Their  daughter  mar- 

1  See  Traditions  of  Edinburgh,  Robert  Chambers. 


264     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

ried  in  1785  the  Marquis  of  Stafford,  afterwards 
created  Duke  of  Sutherland,  and  it  was  they  who 
carried  out  on  their  Highland  estates  the  arbitrary 
measures  known  as  "  The  Sutherland  Clearances,"  by 
which  these  unremunerative  districts  were  converted 
into  sheep-walks.  That  the  object  of  the  proprietors 
was  honestly  to  improve  the  country,  in  obedience  to 
the  fetish  called  "  Political  Economy ,"  cannot  be 
doubted ;  and  that  they  were  not  ashamed  of  it  is 
shown  by  the  publication  of  an  account  by  the  com- 
missioner, James  Loch,  which  was  entitled  "An 
account  of  the  improvements  of  the  Marquess  of 
Stafford  in  the  Counties  of  Sutherland,  with  re- 
marks. By  James  Loch,  Esquire.  London :  Long- 
man, 1820." 

Even  allowing  that  their  intentions  were  good  (which 
however  has  been  vigorously  denied),  nothing  can  ex- 
cuse the  ruthless  cruelty  exercised  and  the  unparalleled 
suffering  inflicted  in  driving  out  the  unfortunate  in- 
habitants of  these  Highland  valleys.  These  poor 
people  were  unable  to  see  that  their  lot,  though  pov- 
erty-stricken, was  unbearable,  and  that  the  life  which 
their  fathers  had' led  from  immemorial  time,  and  the 
homes  to  which  they  were  attached  by  instincts 
stronger  than  those  of  any  other  race,  must  be  given 
up  in  order  that  the  proprietor  of  the  soil  might  reap 
to  the  utmost  the  value  which  "political  economy" 
ascribed  to  the  country. 

"Between  the  years  1811  and  1820,"  says  Hugh 


SUTHERLAND. 


265 


Miller,  "fifteen  thousand  inhabitants  of  this  northern 
district  were  ejected  from  their  snug  inland  farms  by 
means  for  which  we  would  in  vain  seek  a  precedent, 
except,  perchance,  in  the  history  of  the  Irish  Mas- 
sacre." For  the  right  of  the  Sutherland  family  to 
do  this  he  refers  as  follows  to  a  work  on  political 
economy  by  Sismondi :  "  Under  the  old  Celtic  ten- 
ures— the  only  tenures,  be  it  remembered,  through 
which  the  Lords  of  Sutherland  derive  their  rights  to 
their  lands — the  klaan,  or  children  of  the  soil,  were 
the  proprietors  of  the  soil.  '  The  whole  of  Sutherland/ 
says  Sismondi,  '  belonged  to  the  men  of  Sutherland/ 
Their  chief  was  their  monarch,  and  a  very  absolute 
monarch  he  was.  But  ...  he  had  no  more  right  to 
expel  from  their  homes  the  inhabitants  of  his  county 
than  a  king  to  expel  from  his  country  the  inhabitants 
of  his  kingdom."  Expelled  they  were,  however,  and 
under  circumstances  of  great  cruelty  and  hardship. 
The  plan  was  that  "  the  inhabitants  of  the  central  dis- 
tricts, who,  as  they  were  mere  Celts,  could  not  be 
transformed,  it  was  held,  into  store  farmers,  should  be 
marched  down  to  the  seaside,  there  to  convert  them- 
selves into  fishermen  on  the  shortest  possible  notice, 
and  that  a  few  farmers  of  capital,  of  the  industrious 
Lowland  race,  should  be  invited  to  occupy  the  new 
subdivisions  of  the  interior." 

The  unfortunate  Highlanders  failed  to  fall  in  with 
this  march  of  "  improvement,"  and  offered  a  stubborn, 
though  passive  resistance;  whereupon  the  Sutherland 


266     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


agents — one  under-factor  in  particular — proceeded  to 
the  utmost  lengths.1  In  the  clearance  of  the  parishes 
of  Farr  and  Kildonan  in  1814  the  heather — sole  pas- 
turage for  the  cattle  at  that  season — was  set  on  fire 
in  March,  while  still  the  legal  property  of  the  people, 
and  in  May,  so  soon  as  the  date  on  which  the  inhabit- 
ants had  received  notice  to  decamp  was  passed,  the 
houses,  built  by  their  own  hands  out  of  their  own 
materials,  were  either  pulled  down  about  their  ears  or 
fired. 

"A  numerous  party  of  men,"  says  Hugh  Miller, 
"  with  a  factor  at  their  head,  entered  the  district  and 
commenced  pulling  down  the  houses  over  the  heads  of 
the  inhabitants.  In  an  extensive  tract  of  country  not 
a  human  dwelling  was  left  standing,  and  then,  the 
more  effectually  to  prevent  their  temporary  re-erec- 
tion, the  destroyers  set  fire  to  the  wreck.  In  one  day 
were  the  people  deprived  of  home  and  shelter,  and 
left  exposed  to  the  elements.  Many  deaths  are  said 
to  have  ensued  from  alarm,  fatigue  and  cold.  ...  In 
little  more  than  nine  years  a  population  of  fifteen 
thousand  individuals  were  removed  from  the  interior 

1  This  factor  was  brought  to  trial  for  murder,  on  the  instance  of 
the  sheriff  substitute  for  the  county,  Mr.  Mackid,  who  stated  in  a 
letter  to  Lord  Stafford  that  "  a  more  numerous  catalogue  of  crimes, 
perpetrated  by  an  individual,  has  seldom  disgraced  any  country,  or 
sullied  the  pages  of  a  precognition  in  Scotland."  By  some  legal 
quibble  all  of  Mr.  Mackid's  testimony  was  thrown  out,  and  the  re- 
sult of  the  trial  was  the  factor's  acquittal  and  the  Sheriffs  dismis- 
sal from  office. 


SUTHERLAND. 


267 


of  Sutherland  to  its  seacoasts  or  had  emigrated  to 
America.  The  inland  districts  were  converted  into 
deserts,  through  which  the  traveller  may  take  a  long 
day's  journey  amid  ruins  that  still  bear  the  scathe  of 
fire,  and  grassy  patches  betraying  where  the  evening 
sun  casts  aslant  its  long,  deep  shadows  the  half- 
effaced  lines  of  the  plough.1  .  .  . 

"  The  county  was  not  depopulated ;  its  population 
has  been  merely  arranged  after  a  new  fashion.  The 
late  Duchess  found  it  spread  equally  over  the  interior 
and  the  seacoast,  and  in  very  comfortable  circum- 
stances ;  she  left  it  compressed  into  a  wretched  selvage 
of  poverty  and  suffering  that  fringes  the  county  on  its 
eastern  and  western  shores."  It  is  told  that  the 
results  of  this  policy  were  brought  pointedly  home  to 
its  authors.  When,  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  Russian 
war,  the  Duke  of  Sutherland  came  North  in  search  of 
recruits  for  the  Ninety-third  Highlanders,  a  meeting 
of  the  male  inhabitants  of  the  neighboring  parishes  was 
called  at  Golspie.  More  than  four  hundred  appeared, 
and  received  with  apparent  enthusiasm  his  Grace's 
speech,  telling  of  "  the  danger  of  allowing  the  Czar  to 
have  more  power  than  what  he  holds  already ;  of  his 
cruel,  despotic  reign  in  Russia,  etc. ;  likewise  praising 
the  Queen  and  her  Government,  rulers  and  nobles  of 

1  These  events  are  referred  to  in  Murray's  Hand-Book  for  Scot- 
land as  "  the  wise  measures  of  the  late  (second)  Duke  of  Suther- 
land, who  removed  the  Highland  cottiers  from  their  upland  moors, 
where  they  were  in  the  habit  of  starving,  to  more  genial  and  shel- 
tered dwellings  on  the  coast." 


268     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Great  Britain,  who  stood  so  much  in  need  of  men 
to  put  and  keep  down  the  tyrant  of  Russia,  and  foil 
him  in  his  wicked  schemes  to  take  possession  of 
Turkey."  With  more  to  the  same  effect.  But  not- 
withstanding the  very  liberal  offers  to  recruits  with 
which  the  harangue  concluded,  not  a  man  came  for- 
ward. The  Duke,  much  disconcerted,  demanded  to 
know  the  reason,  but  for  some  time  no  one  would 
reply.  At  last  an  old  man,  leaning  on  a  staff,  worked 
his  way  to  the  front,  and,  after  reminding  the  noble 
lord  of  the  old-time  devotion  of  this  people  for  their 
chief ;  how,  near  that  very  spot,  on  forty-eight  hours' 
notice,  fifteen  hundred  men  had  assembled  in  response 
to  his  own  grandmother's  demand  for  nine  hundred 
men,  went  on  to  say  that  this  feeling  had  been  quite 
stamped  out  by  the  cruel  and  unjust  way  in  which  they 
had  been  expelled  from  their  lands,  and  "  I  do  assure 
your  Grace  that  it  is  the  prevailing  opinion  in  this 
county  that  should  the  Czar  of  Russia  take  possession 
of  Dunrobin  Castle  and  of  Stafford  House  next  term, 
we  could  not  expect  worse  treatment  at  his  hands 
than  we  have  experienced  at  the  hands  of  your  family 
for  the  last  fifty  years."  The  account  says  that,  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  old  Highlander's  speech,  "The 
Duke  rose  up,  put  on  his  hat  and  left  the  field."1 

Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  in  her  Sunny  Memories 
of  Foreign  Lands  (1854),  devotes  several  pages  to  a 

1  "Gloomy  Memories  of  the  Highlands,"  Donald  Macleod,  in  The 
History  of  the  Highland  Clearances,  Alex.  Mackenzie. 


SUTHERLAND. 


269 


sweeping  denial  of  all  charges  of  cruelty  or  injustice  in 
the  carrying  out  the  Sutherland  Clearances,  concluding 
with  the  statement :  "  To  my  view  it  is  an  almost 
sublime  instance  of  the  benevolent  employment  of 
superior  wealth  and  power  in  shortening  the  struggles 
of  advancing  civilization,  and  elevating  in  a  few  years 
a  whole  community  to  a  point  of  education  and  mate- 
rial prosperity  which,  unassisted,  they  might  never 
have  obtained."  Mrs.  Stowe's  opinion  would  how- 
ever have  more  weight  had  she  not,  by  her  own 
showing,  obtained  her  evidence  entirely  from  the  prin- 
cipal agent  in  the  clearances.  It  does  not  seem  to 
occur  to  her  that  any  suspicion  could  attach  to  the 
flowery  statements  of  Mr.  Loch,  the  general  agent  of 
the  Sutherland  estates,  and  the  man  most  interested  in 
getting  a  favorable  view  put  before  the  world.  She 
quotes  him  triumphantly,  and  no  one  else.  Donald  Mac- 
leod,  in  commenting  upon  her  statements,  not  unnat- 
urally remarks  :  "  If  you  took  the  information  and  evi- 
dence upon  which  you  founded  your  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin 
from  such  unreliable  sources  (as  I  said  before),  who 
can  believe  the  one-tenth  of  your  novel  ?   I  cannot." 

Clearances  similar  to  those  in  Sutherland  have  been 
carried  out  on  an  extensive  scale,  and  in  some  in- 
stances with  even  less  semblance  of  justice,  in  Ross- 
shire,  also  in  the  counties  of  Inverness,  Perth  and 
Argyll  and  on  the  Island  of  Skye.  They  are  noticed 
in  The  History  of  the  Highland  Clearances,  by  Alex. 
Mackenzie,  quoted  above. 


270     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 

The  northern  part  of  Sutherlandshire  was  inhabited 
by  the  Mackays,  generally  held  to  be  descended  from 
the  Clan  Morgan,  ancient  Maormors  of  Caithness. 
Their  extensive  lands  were  called  "  Lord  Reay's  Coun- 
try/' from  the  title  conferred  upon  Donald  Mackay, 
chief  of  the  clan,  by  Charles  I.  The  result,  according 
to  Skene,  was  that  "Lord  Reay  found  it  as  much  his 
interest  to  oppose  the  family  of  Stewart  as  Donald 
Mackay  had  to  support  that  family  in  their  difficulties 
with  all  his  interest ;  and  accordingly,  throughout  the 
insurrections  in  favor  of  that  regal  house  in  the  years 
1715  and  1745,  the  existing  government  found  in  Lord 
Reay  a  staunch  and  active  supporter  ;  while  the  Stew- 
arts found  that,  in  rewarding  the  loyalty  of  the  chief 
of  the  Mackays  with  a  peerage,  they  had  but  changed 
a  steady  friend  to  a  bitter  enemy,  and  that  Charles 
Edward  was  to  fiud  one  of  his  most  powerful  oppo- 
nents in  the  great-grandson  of  the  person  who  had 
been  most  indebted  to  his  grandfather." 

In  the  year  1829  the  Duke  of  Sutherland  purchased 
the  whole  of  the  Reay  country  from  Lord  Reay,  the 
head  of  the  Mackays,  for  the  sum  of  £300,000,  and 
Tongue  House,  once  the  seat  of  that  chief,  is  now 
occupied  by  the  Duke's  factor.  It  stands  on  the 
eastern  shore  of  the  Kyle  of  Tongue,  a  short  distance 
from  the  village.  Further  up  the  Kyle  is  Castle 
Varrich,  the  ruin  of  what  was  once  a  strong  keep 
tower.  At  Durness,  only  about  ten  miles  east  of  Cape 
Wrath,  the  northwesternmost  point  of  the  Scottish 


CAITHNESS. 


271 


mainland,  are  the  ruins  of  an  early  seventeenth  cen- 
tury parish  church,  built  on  the  site  of  a  former 
monastery.  The  grave  of  Duncan  MacMorroch  is 
said  to  occupy  its  position  in  the  wall  as  a  sort  of 
compromise  ;  his  mode  of  life  was  not  such  as  to  justify 
his  burial  in  the  sacred  building,  and  yet,  as  he  had 
been  most  useful  to  the  chief,  it  was  not  desirable  to 
quite  exclude  him,  so  he  lies  half  in  and  half  out,  and 
his  epitaph  tells  that 

**  Duncan  MacMorroch  here  lies  low ; 
Was  ill  to  his  friend,  waur  to  his  foe  ; 
True  to  his  master  in  weird  and  wo." 

CAITHNESS. 

The  northeastern  promontory  of  Scotland,  which 
forms  the  County  of  Caithness,  was  anciently  inhab- 
ited by  the  Caledonian  tribe  of  Curnavii.  Early  in 
the  tenth  century  these  were  brought  under  the  Norse 
rule  by  Sigurd  Jarl  of  Orkney,  and  in  1196  William 
the  Lion  drove  out  the  Norsemen  and  included  the 
district  with  the  rest  of  the  Scottish  kingdom.  From 
the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  on,  the  St.  Clairs 
were  the  leading  family  of  Caithness;  and  in  1455 
their  head  was  made  Earl  of  Caithness.  Of  the  holder 
of  the  title  in  1750,  the  author  of  The  Highlands  of 
Scotland  says  :  "  A  Reserved  whimsical  man  is  Chief 
of  the  Clan,  but  his  estate  being  small,  and  his  Dis- 
position unhospitable  and  unsociable,  he  is  but  little 


272     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

regarded.  The  Principal  Branches  of  his  family  are 
the  Lairds  of  Ulpstar  [Ulbster],  Dunbeath  and  May : 
the  two  first  are  well  affected,  and  have  good  Estates, 
but  the  last  on  whom  the  Commons  have  such  De- 
pendance,  that  many  consider  him  as  Chief,  was 
suspected. " 

Caithness  is  not  a  Highland  county ;  in  the  charac- 
ter of  the  country  and  customs  of  the  people  it  much 
more  resembles  the  Lowlands ;  while  in  the  census  of 
1891  less  than  one-ninth  of  the  population  were  re- 
turned as  using  Gaelic.1 

The  only  Castle  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the 
county  is  Dounreay,  near  Reay,  which  was  inhabited 
so  lately  as  1863.  Cromwell's  soldiers  were  quar- 
tered in  it  when  it  was  the  property  of  the  Mackays. 

At  Thurso,  further  west  on  the  coast,  are  the  ruins 
of  a  seventeenth  century  chtfrch.  There  was  an 
older  one  on  the  same  site ;  and  fifteen  miles  inland 
are  the  ruins  of  Dirlot,  once  a  fortalice  of  the  Guns. 
The  palace  of  the  Bishops  of  Caithness  was  at  Scrab- 
ster,  on  the  outskirts  of  Thurso,  but  its  remains  are 
very  sparse. 

All  the  most  important  of  the  ancient  buildings 
of  Caithness  are  gathered  within  a  rather  small 
radius  on  or  near  Sinclair's  Bay.  Here  we  find 
Girnigoe,  one  of  the  strongest  among  all  the  fortresses 
of  the  North,  occupying  an  impregnable  (before  the 
introduction   of  gunpowder)  position   on   a  rocky 

1  See  Ordnance  Gazetteer. 


CAITHNESS. 


273 


promontory  jutting  out  into  the  German  Ocean.  It 
was  built,  probably  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, by  the  St.  Glairs,  Earls  of  Caithness,  and  was 
the  chief  stronghold  of  that  once  powerful  family. 
A  more  modern  building,  called  Castle  Sinclair,  ad- 
joins it  on  the  inner  side.  In  the  dungeon  of  Gir- 
nigoe,  the  Master  of  Caithness,  placed  there  by  his 
father's  orders,  died  horribly  of  thirst,  having  been 
first  nearly  starved  by  his  jailers,  and  then  fed  on 
highly-salted  beef  (1576-' 8 2). 

The  Castle  was  provided  with  a  secret  chamber, 
called  the  Gote,  reached  by  a  hatchway  in  the  floor 
of  the  Earl's  bedchamber.  Here  a  notorious  coiner, 
Arthur  Smith,  is  said  to  have  passed  a  number  of 
years  engaged  in  his  "profession,"  until  Caithness, 
Sutherland  and  Orkney  were  flooded  with  false  coin, 
both  silver  and  gold;  and  Sir  Robert  Gordon  was 
commissioned  by  Government  to  apprehend,  not  the 
Earl,  but  Smith.  This  George,  Earl  of  Caithness, 
son  of  the  Master  of  Caithness  already  referred  to, 
was  a  singularly  hardened  old  reprobate.  Notwith- 
standing Smith's  industry,  his  debts  amounted  to  an 
appalling  sum,  and  his  son,  Lord  Berriedale,  having 
made  himself  responsible  for  them,  his  father  allowed 
him  to  lie  for  five  years  in  the  Edinburgh  Tolbooth ; 
while  he  himself  pursued  his  usual  reckless  mode  of 
life  in  his  northern  Earldom.  Small  wonder  that 
when  Sir  Robert  Gordon  at  last  came,  with  a  force 
so  powerful  that  the  Earl  was  driven  out  of  his 
Vol.  II.— 18 


274     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

possessions,  we  find  Lord  Berriedale,  then  freed  from 
his  prison,  taking  part  against  his  father. 

About  a  mile  to  the  west  is  Ackergill  Tower, 
which  stands  on  lands  once  belonging  to  the  Cheynes, 
and  then,  through  marriage,  to  the  Keiths,  Earls 
Marischal.  On  the  north  side  of  Sinclair  Bay,  Keiss 
Castle,  belonging  to  a  younger  branch  of  the  St. 
Clairs,  is  still  impressive,  notwithstanding  its  ruinous 
condition.  At  Wick,  further  south  on  the  coast,  are 
the  remains  of  what  is  probably  the  oldest  Castle  in 
Caithness.  "  The  Old  Man  of  Wick/'  as  it  is  called, 
was  occupied  in  the  fourteenth  century  by  Sir  Regi- 
nald de  Cheyne. 

At  Dunbeath  is  the  Castle  which  Sir  John  St.  Clair 
left  in  April,  1650,  to  be  defended  by  his  Lady  and 
a  few  servants,  while  he  himself  fled  south  on  the 
first  news  of  Montrose's  landing.  The  position  was 
very  strong,  and  as  there  was  a  plentiful  stock  of 
provisions,  the  Laird  believed  no  doubt  that  it  would 
hold  out  till  reinforcements  could  be  sent  to  the 
North.  His  wife  however  thought  otherwise,  and 
after  a  very  short  siege  it  was  surrendered  to  Gen- 
eral Hurry.  Montrose  had  effected  his  landing  close 
to  Duncansbay  Head,  the  extreme  northeastern  point 
of  the  Scottish  mainland.  A  little  to  the  west  of  this 
was  John  o'  Groat's  house,  built  by  a  peace-loving 
descendant  of  a  Lowlander  named  Groat  (or  perhaps 
a  Dutchman  named  Groot),  who  settled  here  with  his 
brother  in  the  reign  of  James  IV.    Eight  branches 


THE  ORKNEYS. 


275 


of  Groats  had  sprung  from  the  original  two,  and  it 
was  their  custom  to  hold  family  reunions.  At  one  of 
these  a  violent  quarrel  for  precedence  arose,  each 
head  of  a  family  claiming  the  seat  at  the  head  of 
the  table  and  in  front  of  the  door.  Then  John  arose 
and  said,  "  Peace,  my  brothers ;  at  next  year's  meet- 
ing all  will  be  satisfied ;  only  wait."  So  when  they 
assembled  the  following  year  there  stood  on  the  spot 
an  octagonal  house,  having  eight  doors,  and  within 
an  octagonal  table ;  so  each  entered  by  his  own  door 
and  took  the  first  seat,  and  thus  every  one  was  satis- 
fied. Such  at  least  are  the  general  outlines  of  the 
tradition,  which  is  told  with  varying  details. 


THE  ORKNEYS. 

Across  the  Pentland  Firth,  little  more  than  a  mile 
distant,  is  South  Ronaldshay,  the  nearest  of  the  Ork- 
ney Islands.  The  line  of  the  ancient  Norse  Jarls  of 
Orkney  died  out  in  1231,  when  the  holder  of  the  title 
was  murdered.  It  was  then  held  by  descendants  of 
the  original  Earl  of  Angus  (from  the  King  of  Norway), 
and  eventually  passed  by  marriage  to  the  house  of 
St.  Clair.  When  James  III.  married  Margaret  of 
Denmark  the  Orkneys  and  Shetland  were  given  by 
the  King  of  Denmark,  Norway  and  Sweden  in  pledge 
for  the  bride's  dowry,  and  never  having  been  redeemed, 
they  have  belonged  ever  since  to  the  Scottish  King- 
dom.    The  Earldom  of  Orkney  and  Lordship  of 


276      SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Shetland  were  purchased  by  James  from  the  St.  Clairs 
and  attached  to  the  Crown.  The  St.  Clair  family 
after  this  leased  the  Earldom,  the  last  lessee  of  the 
family  being  Oliver  St.  Clair,  James  Ws  favorite,  who 
lost  the  battle  of  Solway  Moss.  From  the  granting 
of  the  Orkneys  by  charter  to  Lord  Robert  Stewart, 
(natural  son  of  James  V.)  in  1564,  down  to  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  the  Islands  suffered  one  form 
of  oppression  after  another.  The  old  Norse  odal 
system,  which  forbade  the  alienation  of  lands  without 
the  formal  consent  of  all  the  heirs,  was  practically 
abolished,  and  the  feudal  system  introduced;  when  the 
people  cried  out  against  the  exactions  of  the  Stewarts, 
the  Crown  stepped  in  and  increased  them.  The  Earl 
of  Morton  had  them  in  mortgage  from  Charles  I., 
and  in  1766  they  were  sold  to  Sir  Lawrence  Dundas, 
Earl  of  Zetland,  whose  descendants  still  hold  them. 

The  Stewarts  could  not  forget  that  they  were  of  the 
blood  royal,  and  both  Earl  Robert  and  his  son  Patrick 
lived  in  a  sort  of  regal  state  on  their  remote  posses- 
sions. Birsay  Palace,  on  the  northwest  coast  of  the 
mainland  of  Orkney,  still  bears  witness  to  their 
extravagant  tastes.  A  truly  princely  establishment, 
it  formerly  bore  an  inscription,  "Dominus  Robertus 
Stewartus,  filius  Jacobi  Quinti  Rex  Scotorum,"  which, 
whether  intended  to  set  forth  a  claim,  or  merely  show- 
ing an  example  of  faulty  grammar  (i.  e.,  the  nomina- 
tive for  the  genitive),  was  interpreted  in  the  first 
sense,  and  is  said  to  have  been  used  as  evidence 


THE  ORKNEYS. 


277 


against  Earl  Patrick,  who  was  tried  and  executed 
for  treason. 

Earl  Patrick's  magnificent  town  palace  in  Kirkwall 
is  held  to  be  "  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of  Domestic 
Architecture  in  Scotland/'  It  is  still  in  excellent 
preservation,  being  entire,  except  for  the  roof.  In 
the  great  hall,  with  its  three  beautiful  oriels,  its  mul- 
lioned  south  window,  and  huge  fireplaces,  Scott  places 
the  meeting  of  Cleveland  and  Bunce  in  The  Pirate. 
To  the  west  are  the  ruins  of  the  palace  of  the  once 
all-powerful  Bishops  of  Orkney — built  probably  by 
Bishop  Reid  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  still  partly  inhabited.  Close  by  stands  the  pride 
of  the  Orkneys,  the  great  Norwegian  Cathedral,  built 
in  1137-52  by  Rognvald,  Jarl  of  Orkney,  and  dedi- 
cated to  his  murdered  uncle,  Jarl  Magnus,  who  was 
canonized  shortly  after  his  death.  The  saint's  body 
was  brought  from  Egilshay  in  1135  and  deposited  in 
the  Church  of  St.  Olaf  (from  which  the  town  is  called 
Kirkwall),  and  from  thence  removed  later  to  the 
splendid  resting  place  provided  for  it  in  the  Cathedral. 
St.  Olaf's  was  burned  in  1502,  and  of  the  later  church 
built  on  the  site — the  present  Poorhouse  Close — by 
Bishop  Reid  only  some  fragments  remain.  The  Cathe- 
dral, on  the  contrary,  is  the  only  one  in  Scotland, 
except  that  of  Glasgow,  still  standing  unruined  and 
with  all  its  parts  complete.  A  work  so  gigantic  and 
in  such  a  remote  spot  could  not  be  finished  in  a  few 
years,  and  the  building  exhibits  traces  of  the  various 


278     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

architectural  phases  through  which  it  passed,  the  choir 
being  Norman,  and  the  rest  showing  the  transition 
and  several  varieties  of  the  Pointed  styles.  After  the 
Reformation  the  choir  was  shut  off  by  a  screen,  pro- 
vided with  galleries  and  pews,  and  used  as  a  parish 
church;  but  in  1701  the  presbytery  is  importuned  to 
stop  the  wild  doings  of  the  Town  Guard,  who  are 
accused  of  "  keeping  guard  within  the  church,  shooting 
of  guns,  burning  great  fires  on  the  graves  of  the  dead, 
drinking,  fiddling,  piping,  swearing  and  cursing  night 
and  day  within  the  church,  by  which  means  religion  is 
scandalized  and  the  presbytery  most  miserably  abused  ; 
particularly  that  when  they  are  at  exercises  in  the 
said  church  neither  can  the  preacher  open  his  mouth 
nor  the  hearers  conveniently  attend  for  smoke ;  yea, 
some  of  the  members  of  the  presbytery  have  been 
stopped  in  their  outgoing  and  incoming  to  their  meet- 
ings, and  most  rudely  pursued  by  the  soldiers  with 
muskets  and  halberts." 

In  1845  Government,  acting  on  the  belief  that 
St.  Magnus  belonged  to  the  nation,  spent  £3000  on 
very  much  needed  repairs,  and  as  it  was  no  longer 
required  as  a  parish  church,  the  post  Reformation 
fittings  were  removed,  only  to  be  restored  ten  years 
later,  when  it  was  decided  that  the  heritors  and  Town 
Council  had  control  of  the  building.  These,  in  the 
exuberance  of  their  newly  recovered  authority,  like- 
wise threw  away  the  bones — as  of  no  account — of 
William  the  Old,  first  Bishop  of  Orkney  (1167),  and 


THE  ORKNEYS. 


279 


destroyed  the  Bishop's  throne  and  the  Earl's  pew. 
In  the  south  aisle  is  the  tomb  of  Bishop  Tulloch 
(1461),  and  in  the  choir  that  of  Earl  Robert  Stewart, 
father  of  the  beheaded  Earl  Patrick. 

It  was  to  Kirkwall  that  the  defeated  and  heart- 
broken Norse  King  Haco  came  with  the  battered 
remnants  of  his  once  splendid  fleet,  after  the  battle  of 
Largs  (1263).  He  had  his  quarters  in  the  Bishop's 
Palace — an  earlier  building  than  the  present  one — and 
from  thence  made  a  sort  of  pilgrimage  to  the  Cathe- 
dral, walking  around  the  Saint  Magnus's  shrine; 
"  .  .  .  but  the  legends  of  old  battle-fields  got  the 
better  of  the  legends  of  the  saints.  He  had  read  to 
him  first  the  Bible,  then  the  Lives  of  the  Saints ;  but 
at  last  he  demanded  to  have  read  to  him  day  and 
night,  while  he  was  awake,  the  Chronicles  of  the 
Norwegian  Kings,  from  Haldan  the  Black  down- 
wards." 1 

And  so  he  died  with  heathen  sagas  sounding  in  his 
ears,  but  his  burial  was  most  Christian.  High  mass 
was  sung  for  the  departed  warrior,  and  "  on  Monday 
the  body  was  borne  to  Magnus  Kirk  and  royally  laid 
out  that  night.  On  Tuesday  it  was  laid  in  a  kist 
and  buried  in  the  choir  of  St.  Magnus  Kirk,  near 
the  steps  of  the  shrine  of  St.  Magnus  the  Earl." 

In  front  of  the  Cathedral  is  the  old  Town  Cross 
which  formerly  stood  in  the  market-place.  On  New 
Year's  Day  a  famous  foot-ball  game  is  played  by  those 

1  History  of  Scotland,  Hill  Burton. 


280     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

who  live  above  this  Cross  against  those  from  below, 
and  the  ball  is  started  at  the  Cross. 

The  strong  Castle  built  by  Henry  St.  Clair  opposite 
the  Cathedral  was  fortified,  together  with  the  Cathe- 
dral steeple,  by  Robert,  son  of  Patrick  Stewart,  Avhile 
the  latter  was  lying  in  prison  in  Edinburgh  in  1614. 
On  the  suppression  of  the  Rebellion  by  the  Earl  of 
Caithness,  Stewart  was  captured  and  sent  to  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  was  executed  with  his  father,  and 
the  Castle  was  razed  to  the  ground.  The  group  of 
buildings  called  Tankerness  House,  facing  the  west 
end  of  the  Cathedral,  were  formerly  the  manses  of 
the  prebendaries  and  other  Cathedral  functionaries. 

In  the  Cathedral  Scott  makes  Minna  Troil  meet 
Cleveland,  and  from  thence  he  is  conducted  by  the 
half-mad  Norna  to  the  Standing  Stones  of  Stennis, 
which  rank  in  importance  second  only  to  those  of 
Stonehenge  among  all  the  monuments  of  this  kind  in 
Great  Britain.  In  the  same  parish  is  the  conical 
tumulus  of  Maeshowe,  thirty-six  feet  high,  and  sur- 
rounded by  a  wide  ditch  or  moat ;  its  origin  is  un- 
known. 

At  Orphir,  on  the  south  shore  of  Mainland,  are 
the  remains  of  a  circular  church.  There  are  seven 
others  in  Great  Britain,1  all  modeled  after  the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  at  Jerusalem,  and  all  built  in 
the  twelfth  century  (or  end  of  the  eleventh),  and  due 

1  Five  of  these  are  at  Cambridge,  Northampton,  Maplestead,  Lon- 
don and  Ludlow  Castle. 


THE  ORKNEYS.  281 


to  the  influence  of  the  Crusades.  The  Church  of 
Orpliir  is  the  only  one  of  this  character  in  Scotland, 
and  is  attributed  to  Earl  Haco,  who  had  been  to  the 
Holy  Land,  and  who  died  in  1103. 

Egilshay  Island,  on  the  north,  was  the  scene  of 
Jarl  Magnus's  murder  (1110  circa),  and  the  small 
church  on  the  west  side,  dedicated  to  him,  is  supposed 
to  mark  the  site.  Attached  to  it  is  one  of  the  three 
round  towers  of  Scotland  (the  others  are  at  Brechin 
and  Abernethy).  These  are  modeled  after  the  round 
— detached — towers  of  Ireland,  designed  to  serve  as 
places  of  strength,  whither  the  relics  and  treasures  of 
the  adjoining  religious  house  might  be  taken,  and  the 
monks  themselves  seek  safety  in  times  of  danger. 
They  were  also  used  as  belfries,  and  the  three  Scottish 
ones,  all  connected  with  their  churches,  are  evidently 
intended  solely  for  this  latter  purpose. 

On  the  north  shore  of  Westray,  one  of  the  north- 
ernmost islands  of  Orkney,  is  the  ruined  Castle  of 
Noltland,  built  probably  in  the  latter  part  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  and  certainly  long  after  the  time  of 
Bishop  Tulloch,  to  whom  it  is  commonly  attributed. 
The  most  noticeable  feature  of  Noltland  is  the  mag- 
nificent  staircase,  w7ith  steps  formed  of  solid  blocks  of 
stone,  seven  feet  long,  and  a  great  red-sandstone 
newel.  This  Castle  was  in  the  hands  of  Sir  Gilbert 
Balfour  as  Master  of  the  Household  at  the  time  of 
Queen  Mary's  escape  from  Lochleven,  and  was  got 
ready  in  anticipation  of  her  possible  flight  to  the 


282     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

North.  It  was  there  that,  at  a  later  and  equally  dis- 
astrous crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the  Stuarts,  some  of 
Montrose's  officers  took  refuge  after  his  final  defeat. 
For  long  after  it  had  become  ruinous  it  was  still 
illuminated  on  every  occasion  of  a  birth  or  marriage 
in  the  Balfour  family. 

A  cavern  in  Rap  Ness,  on  the  south,  is  called  the 
Gentleman's  Cave,  from  the  circumstance  of  some 
Orkney  Jacobites  having  occupied  it  for  several 
months  after  the  battle  of  Culloden. 

Midway  between  Orkney  and  Shetland  lies  Fair 
Island,  whose  rock-bound  shores  are  accessible  at  one 
only  spot.  Here  in  1588  was  wrecked  one  of  the 
ships  of  the  doomed  Spanish  Armada.  "...  Early 
in  the  morning,  by  break  of  day,  one  of  our  baillies 
came  to  my  bedside,  saying,  but  not  with  affray,  '  I 
have  to  tell  you  news,  sir.  There  is  arrived  within 
our  harbour  [Anstrather  in  Fife]  this  morning  ane 
ship  full  of  Spanyards,  but  not  to  give  mercy,  but  to 
ask.' "  (James  Melville.) 

These  were  the  crew  of  the  wrecked  vessel,  who  had 
after  some  time  succeeded  in  getting  another  ship  to 
bring  them  to  shore,  not  however  without  leaving  a 
lasting  memorial  of  their  stay  on  the  island ;  for, 
according  to  tradition,  it  was  from  these  Spanish  v  'tors 
that  the  women  of  Fair  Isle  learned  to  kni  e 
various  woollen  articles  of  intricate  design  fc, 
they  are  famed. 


Sumburgh  Head,  Shetland 


SHETLAND. 


283 


SHETLAND. 

The  distance  from  Fair  Isle  to  the  southernmost 
point  of  Mainland  in  the  Shetlands  is  about  twenty- 
three  miles,  yet  so  wild  and  dangerous  are  the  currents 
that  meet  and  beat  and  boil  against  this  northernmost 
outpost  of  the  British  Islands,  that  up  to  within  com- 
paratively recent  times  the  people  of  England  and 
Scotland  held  the  vaguest  and  most  singular  notions 
of  the  character  of  the  country.  A  hundred  years  ago 
the  only  communication  was  by  means  of  a  small 
vessel  that  sailed  from  Aberdeen  theoretically  every 
month,  but  actually  about  seven  times  a  year. 

"  Except  business  men  and  an  occasional  traveller 
of  scientific  tastes,  the  islands  had  before  the  publica- 
tion of  The  Pirate,  and  still  more  the  introduction 
of  steam  communication  all  the  year  round  in  1853, 
practically  no  visitors  at  all."  {Ordnance  Gazetteer). 
The  great  Shetland  industry  is  fishing ;  and  next  in 
importance  comes  the  manufacture  of  woollen  garments 
out  of  the  fine,  soft  native  fleece.  The  islands  too  are 
famous  for  their  hardy  breed  of  shaggy  little  ponies, 
nine  to  ten  hands  high,  which  go  about  nearly  wild. 
There  is  great  demand  for  them  throughout  Scotland, 
principally,  alas,  for  life-long  work  in  the  coal  mines. 

The  most  notable  building  in  Shetland  is  the  Castle 
at  Scalloway,  on  the  west  coast  of  Mainland,  that  Earl 
Patrick  Stewart  forced  the  inhabitants  to  build  for 


284     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

him  without  remuneration  in  1600.  Since  its  occupa- 
tion by  Cromwell's  soldiers  it  has  been  abandoned 
and  is  now  in  ruins.  To  the  same  period  belongs  the 
northernmost  castle  of  Scotland,  Muness,  which  stands 
on  the  east  coast  of  the  Island  of  Anst  and  bears  the 
date  1598.  Its  builder,  Laurence  Bruce,  was  half- 
brother  to  Robert  Stewart,  Earl  of  Orkney.  He  was 
obliged  to  leave  his  own  country  of  Perthshire,  on 
account  of  a  murder,  and  established  himself  under 
Earl  Robert's  protection  in  this  strong  Castle  in  the 
remote  North. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 

The  County  of  Inverness  was  the  home  of  many 
of  the  principal  historical  Highland  clans.  It  has  an 
ancient  Celtic  history  and  a  less  ancient  clan  history, 
difficult  to  follow  by  any  one  not  a  Highlander,  and 
which  we  do  not  propose  to  refer  to  in  this  sketch  of 
the  county.  But  it  may  be  well  to  note  the  locations 
of  the  various  clan  territories,  and  to  give  the  old 
names  of  the  districts  which  they  occupied,  still  uni- 
versally used  in  the  county.1 

1  "  A  Highland  clan  [the  word  in  Gaelic  means  '  children  ']  is  a 
set  of  men  all  bearing  the  same  surname,  and  believing  themselves 
to  be  related  the  one  to  the  other  and  to  be  descended  from  the  same 
common  stock.  In  each  clan  there  are  several  subaltern  tribes,  who 
own  their  dependence  on  their  own  immediate  chief;  but  all  agree 
in  owning  allegiance  to  the  supreme  chief  of  the  clan  or  kindred,  and 
look  upon  it  to  be  their  duty  to  support  him  at  all  adventures  " 
["  Memorandum  of  Lord  President  Forbes,"  The  Rising  of  1745,  C. 
S.  Terry].  "...  In  almost  every  clan  there  were  some  subordinate 
chiefs  called  chieftains,  being  cadets  of  the  principal  family,  who 
had  acquired  distinct  territory  and  founded  separate  septs.  In  every 
clan,  moreover,  there  were  two  ranks  of  people—  the  Doaine-uailse, 
or  gentlemen,  persons  who  could  clearly  trace  their  derivation  from 
the  chiefs  of  former  times,  and  assert  their  kinsmanship  to  the  pres- 
ent, and  a  race  of  commoners,  who  could  not  tell  how  they  came  to 
belong  to  the  clan  and  who  acted  in  inferior  offices  "  [History  of  the 
Rebellion  of  1745,  Robert  Chambers]. 

235 


286     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

To  the  north  of  Loch  Ness  in  Beauly  and  Glen 
Affrick,  and  to  the  east  of  the  Loch  in  the  district  of 
Stratherrick,  was  the  country  of  the  Frasers,  whose 
chief  was  Lord  Lovat.  In  Strathglass  lived  the 
small  clan  of  Chisolm,  entirely  surrounded  by  the 
Frasers.  East  and  south  of  Inverness  town,  in  the 
valleys  of  the  Nairn  and  the  Findhorn,  known  as 
Strathdearn,  lay  the  territory  of  the  Macintoshes,  one 
of  the  branches  of  the  great  Clan  Chattan,  while  south 
of  them,  in  Badenoch,  in  the  valley  of  the  Spey,  was 
the  land  of  another  branch  of  Clan  Chattan,  the  Clan 
Vurich,  better  known  by  the  nickname  of  Macpher- 
son,  the  son  of  the  parson. 

On  the  uplands  west  of  Loch  Ness  were  the  Grants 
of  Loch  Urquhart  and  of  Glen  Moriston.  Round 
the  shores  of  Loch  Lochy,  Loch  Arkaig,  Loch  Eil 
and  Loch  Linnhe  was  the  district  of  Lochaber,  the 
home  of  the  Camerons  and  of  the  Macdonalds  of 
Keppoch.  West  of  Lochaber  were  the  districts  of 
Moidart,  Arisaig  and  Morar,  the  property  of  Mac- 
donald  of  Clanranald,  who  also  owned  the  islands  of 
Benbecula,  South  Uist  and  Eriskay.  North  of  Moi- 
dart were  Knoidart  and  Glengarry,  the  lands  of  Mac- 
donald  of  Glengarry,  while  still  further  north  was 
Glenelg,  belonging  to  the  Macleods,  whose  principal 
territory  was  in  Skye.  There  the  ancient  Castle  of 
Dunvegan  still  stands,  "an  amorphous  mass  of 
masonry  of  every  conceivable  style  of  architecture  in 
which  the  nineteenth  jostles  the  ninth  century,"  and 


INVEENESS-SHIRE. 


287 


in  which  the  chief  of  Macleod  still  resides  in  what 
has  been  the  stronghold  of  his  ancestors  from  time 
immemorial. 

Skye  was  also  the  home  of  the  small  Clan  Mac- 
Is  innon  and  of  a  branch  of  the  great  Clan  Donald, 
the  Macdonalds  of  Sleat,  who  also  owned  the  island 
of  North  Uist. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  at  the  Jacobite  period 
the  chiefs  of  Chisolm,  Glengarry,  Clanranald  and  Kep- 
poch,  were  Roman  Catholics ;  their  clansmen  for  the 
most  part  followed  the  religion  of  their  chiefs,  and  to 
this  day  the  inhabitants  of  these  old  clan  districts  are 
principally  Catholics.  Cluny  Macpherson,  Macin- 
tosh, the  Grants,  Macleods,  Macdonalds  of  Sleat  and 
Mackinnons  were  Presbyterians,  and  their  territories 
are  still  the  stronghold  of  the  Presbyterian  Free 
Church.  Lord  Lovat  was  ostensibly  a  Presbyterian 
to  the  day  before  his  capture,  when  he  joined  the 
Church  of  Rome  and  died  in  that  communion.  His 
immediate  descendants  were  Protestants,  but  his  later 
successors  reverted  to  the  faith  of  their  remark- 
able ancestor,  and  the  present  Lord  Lovat  is  a  Cath- 
olic, but  as  a  rule  the  Frasers  belong  to  the  Pres- 
byterian Church. 

The  most  conspicuous  feature  of  Inverness-shire  is 
the  Caledonian  Canal,  formed  by  connecting  by  means 
of  artificial  cuttings  the  remarkable  series  of  fresh- 
water lochs  that  lie  in  the  line  of  the  "Great  Glen  " 
and  the  firths  at  either  end.    This  gigantic  piece  of 


288     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

work  was  over  forty  years  in  doing  (1803-47),  and 
although  it  has  not  quite  fulfilled  the  idea  of  its  pro- 
jectors— the  forming  of  a  waterway  for  large  vessels 
between  the  North  Sea  and  the  Atlantic — it  is  used  by 
great  numbers  of  smaller  craft,  fishing  boats  and  the 
like,  and  is  a  favorite  excursion  of  myriads  of  tourists 
from  all  over  the  world. 

On  the  Moray  Firth,  near  the  northeastern  ex- 
tremity of  the  canal  on  the  banks  of  the  River  Ness, 
stands  Inverness,  the  capital  of  the  Highlands.  The 
existence  of  a  Castle  on  the  site  occupied  now  by  the 
jail  and  county  buildings  cannot  be  traced  beyond  the 
time  of  Malcolm  Ceannmor,  who  built  there  a  royal 
fortress  after  defeating  Macbeth  at  Lumphanan  in 
1057.  There  was  a  still  earlier  fortress  whose  site  is 
not  surely  known,  though  it  was  probably  on  the 
Crown,  a  hill  on  the  east  of  the  town,  where  the  bar- 
racks now  stand.  To  it,  as  the  capital  of  the  Pictish 
King,  Brud,  St.  Columba  came  about  the  year  565, 
and  so  exerted  his  miraculous  power  that  the  King 
was  promptly  converted  and  baptized.  Macbeth,  as 
Mormaer  of  Iloss  and  Moray,  held  the  Castle  on  the 
Crown. 

Malcolm  Caennmor's  Castle  figures  as  a  royal  for- 
tress in  most  of  the  leading  events  of  the  history  of 
the  Highlands,  being  the  common  place  of  residence 
of  the  sovereigns  during  their  visits  to  the  North. 
In  the  sixteenth  century  the  Earls  of  Huntly  were 
its  hereditary  keepers,  and  we  have  already  seen  how 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


289 


it  refused  to  admit  Queen  Mary  in  1652,  when  the 
powerful  family  of  Gordon  had  come  into  collision 
with  the  Crown.  The  Queen  was  obliged  to  occupy 
a  private  house  in  the  town  until  her  people,  having 
been  reinforced  by  the  defection  from  Huntly's  party 
of  the  Macintoshes,  Frasers  and  Munroes,  the  fortress 
was  reduced  and  the  governor  hanged. 

In  1718  the  Castle  was  repaired  and  enlarged,  and 
renamed  Fort  George,  in  honor  of  King  George  I. 
In  1746  it  surrendered  to  the  Jacobite  army,  and 
Prince  Charles  ordered  it  to  be  blown  up ;  two  bas- 
tions and  a  section  of  the  curtain  wall  are  all  that  now 
remain  of  the  ancient  building. 

One  wonders  a  little  as  to  the  kind  of  accommoda- 
tion Queen  Mary  found  in  the  town  while  waiting  to 
have  the  road  to  her  own  royal  fortress  made  clear 
with  gunpowder  and  the  gibbet.  Not  very  ample  or 
luxurious,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  fact  that  the 
house  of  the  Dowager  Lady  Macintosh,  in  which  her 
descendant,  Prince  Charles,  lodged  nearly  two  hun- 
dred years  later,  was  then  the  only  one  in  the  town 
possessing  a  reception  room  that  was  not  also  a 
bed-chamber. 

In  1652-57  Cromwell  put  up  a  powerful  fort  (the 
citadel)  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Ness  north  of  the 
town.  It  was  destroyed  soon  after  the  Restoration  at 
the  request  of  the  Highland  chiefs,  and  has  never 
been  rebuilt,  but  a  clock  tower  and  earthern  ramparts 
still  mark  its  site.  The  square  tower  of  the  High 
Vol.  II.— 19 


LlVi      -CvTLAXD.  HISTuF.IC  A>~I>  EuMaXTIC, 


Church  is  also  said  to  have  been  built  by  Cromwell 
and  provided  by  him  with  a  bell  from  Fortrose 
CathedraL 

So  rue  four  miles  east  of  Inverness  stands  the  old 
house  of  Culloden,  still  belonging  to  a  branch  of  the 
Forbes  family,  whose  head  in  the  '45  was  Duncan 
Forbes,  the  Lord  President  of  the  Court  of  Session. 
It  was  to  him  more  than  to  any  one  that  the  Govern- 
ment was  indebted  for  preventing  all  the  northern 
Highlanders  from  joining  the  Jacobite  insurrection. 
He  was  actuated  not  only  by  loyalty  to  the  Govern- 
ment, which  treated  him  most  ungrateradly,  but  by  a 
kindly  desire  to  prevent  his  friends  and  neighbors  in 
the  Highlands  froni  embarking  in  a  cause  that  he  felt 
meant  certain  destruction. 

••  It  was  more  congenial  to  his  nature  to  reclaim 
than  to  punish  :  and  his  life  was  spent  in  keeping 
quiet,  by  mean-  of  influence,  persuasion  and  the  inter- 
position of  friends,  those  warlike  and  independent 
chiefs  whom  presumption  and  political  prejudice  were 
perpetually  urging  to  take  up  arms.  Lord  Advocate 
Forbes  .  .  .  was  among  the  patriots  who  saved  the 
city  of  Edinburgh  from  the  vindictive  measures 
meditated  against  the  metropolis  on  account  of  the 
singular  insurrection  called  the  Porteous  M  b."  1 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  Prince's  Rising  reach ed 
Edinburgh  he  hastened  to  the  Highlands,  where  he 
used  every  ,  means  at  his  command  to  dissuade  the 

1  Sir  Walter  Sock's  Eerie*  of  the  OUIoden  Paper*. 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


291 


chiefs  from  going  out,  and  advanced  out  of  his  own 
pocket  sufficient  money  to  enlist  two  thousand  High- 
landers in  independent  companies  for  the  service  of 
the  Government,  which  never  repaid  him. 

"  The  prospect  was  at  first  very  flattering,"  he 
writes,  aand  the  errand  I  came  on  had  no  appear- 
ance of  difficulty;  but  the  Rebels'  successes  at  Edin- 
burgh and  Prestonpans  soon  changed  the  scene.  All 
Jacobites,  how  prudent  soever,  became  mad ;  all 
doubtful  people  became  Jacobites ;  and  all  bank- 
rupts became  heroes,  and  talked  nothing  but  heredi- 
tary rights  and  victory  ;  and  what  was  more  grievous 
to  men  of  gallantry,  and,  if  you  will  believe  me, 
much  more  mischievous  to  the  public,  all  the  fine 
ladies,  if  you  will  except  one  or  two,  became  passion- 
ately fond  of  the  young  adventurer,  and  used  all 
their  arts  and  industry  for  him  in  the  most  intemper- 
ate manner.  Under  these  circumstances  I  found  my- 
self alone,  without  troops,  without  arms,  without 
money  or  credit ;  provided  with  no  means  to  prevent 
extreme  folly  except  pen  and  ink,  a  tongue  and  some 
reputation ;  and  (if  you  will  except  Macleod,  whom 
I  sent  for  from  the  Isle  of  Skye)  supported  by  no- 
body of  common  sense  or  courage."  1 

On  the  coast  to  the  north  of  Culloden  stands  Dal- 
cross,  the  ruin  of  a  seventh  century  Castle  of  the 
Lords  Lovat,  now  the  property  of  the  Macintoshes, 
near  to  which  is  Castle  Stewart,  of  the  same  period, 

1  Culloden  Papers. 


202      *COTLA>T».  HISTORIC  AXD  EOMA>"TIC 


built  by  the  Stewart  Earl  of  Moray.  A  few  miles  to 
the  northeast  is  the  modem  Fort  George,  command- 
ing the  entrance  to  the  Inverness  Firth,  as  the  inner 
waters  :L~  M  r;; y  Firth  arc  called.  I:  was  bail: 
three  years  after  the  "45.  and  was  named  after  the 
Inverness  Fort,  which  had  been  blown  up  by  Prince 
Charles,  It  is  now  used  as  quarters  for  a  regiment 
of  Highlanders, 

To  the  west  of  Inverness  the  Firth  narrows  to  a 
smaller  inlet  of  the  sea  known  as  the  Beauly  Firth, 
into  which,  eight  miles  from  Inverness,  the  River 
Beauly  empties  itself,  after  running  its  ten-mile  course 
through  some  of  the  most  strikingly  interesting 
scenery  in  Scotland.  At  Beauly.  close  to  the  river, 
are  the  ruins  of  a  Priory  founded  in  the  thirteenth 
century  by  John  Bisset  of  Lovat.  the  buildings  dating 
from  about  two  centuries  later.  Beaufort  Castle, 
formerly  called  Castle  Downie,  the  seat  of  Lord 
Lovat,  is  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  higher  up ; 
and  beyond  are  first  the  Falls  of  Kilmoraek,  next 
the  Druim  Glen,  and  finally  Erchless  Castle,  the  seat 
of  the  Chief  of  Chisolm,  at  which  point  the  Beauly 
River,  formed  by  the  conjunction  of  the  Glass  and 
the  Farrar,  has  its  birth. 

The  Frasers  of  Lovat  were  a  Xoruian  family  origin- 
ally settled  in  Peebleshire,  who  obtained  the  lands  of 
Lovat  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
though  whether  by  marriage  with  an  heiress  or  by 
purchase  is  not  certainly  known.    A  century  before 


INVEENESS-SHIEE. 


293 


this  the  lands  had  belonged  to  the  Bissets  of  Lovat, 
another  powerful  Norman  family,  members  of  which 
held  vast  possessions  both  in  England  and  in  Ulster. 
This  family  had  been  driven  out  of  Scotland  on  ac- 
count of  a  crime  in  which  a  Bisset  was  supposed  to 
be  implicated.  At  a  tournament  held  on  the  Borders 
in  the  reign  of  Alexander  II.,  Patrick,  sixth  Earl 
of  Atholl,  had  vanquished  a  certain  William  Bisset, 
settled  in  Berwickshire.  Bisset  was  extremely  mor- 
tified at  his  defeat,  and  shortly  afterwards  the  Earl 
of  Atholl  was  murdered  in  Haddington  (1242). 
Bisset,  though  not  proved  guilty,  was  believed  to 
have  had  some  share  in  the  assassination ;  the  con- 
science of  the  country  was  aroused,  and  the  whole 
family  was  driven  from  Scotland.  It  is  interesting  to 
find,  however,  that  the  name  Bisset  is  still  found 
among  humble  people  in  the  Lovat  country. 

Of  all  the  Lords  of  Lovat,  none  were  more  remark- 
able than  Simon  Fraser,  the  Lord  Lovat  who  held  the 
title  in  1 745,  and  who,  disloyal  to  both  parties,  fell  at 
last  a  victim  to  his  own  treachery  and  ambition. 

Lord  Lovat  succeeded  to  the  title  on  the  death  of 
a  distant  cousin,  whose  nine-year-old  daughter  in- 
herited the  estates,  but  not  the  title.  He  attempted 
to  carry  off  and  marry  this  heiress,  but  was  pre- 
vented, and  she  subsequently  married  Mackenzie  of 
Fraserdale,  who  took  the  name  of  Fraser;  but  the 
clan  for  the  most  part  chose  to  acknowledge  Lord 
Lovat  as, their  chief  rather  than  Mackenzie. 


294     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Lord  Lovat  then  abducted  the  heiress's  mother  and 
forced  her  to  marry  him.  For  this  he  was  outlawed. 
He  fled  to  France,  where  he  entered  into  negotiations 
with  the  Court  of  King  James  and  served  as  a 
Jacobite  agent,  at  the  same  time  that  he  was  acting 
as  a  spy  for  King  William's  Government ;  but  neither 
side  reposed  much  confidence  in  him.  After  the 
death  of  James  VII.,  he  returned  to  Scotland,  mixed 
in  plots  on  both  sides,  and  was  forced  once  more  to 
fly  to  France,  where  it  is  said  he  was  kept  a  prisoner 
at  Saumur.  It  is  also  said  that  he  became  a  sham 
Jesuit  and  an  eloquent  preacher,  but  this  is  doubtful. 

In  the  '15  he  was  back  in  Scotland,  in  the  service 
of  King  George.  Fraserdale,  who  had  married  the 
heiress,  went  out  for  the  Chevalier,  and  was  forfeited. 
Lord  Lovat  bought  in  the  estates  for  a  small  price, 
thus  uniting  them  with  the  title.  He  now  de- 
voted himself  to  the  training  and  equipment  of  his 
clan,  which  he  brought  to  a  state  of  military  perfec- 
tion. 

In  spite  of  his  first  so-called  marriage,  which  was 
probably  annulled,  Lord  Lovat  twice  married  during 
the  Dowager  Lady  Lovat's  life.  One  of  his  wives 
was  a  Primrose  Campbell,  a  sister  of  the  fourth  Duke 
of  Argyll.  He  treated  her  so  outrageously  that  the 
Campbells  were  finally  obliged  to  interfere  and  to 
take  her  out  of  her  husband's  power. 

He  in  the  meantime  was  continuing  to  play  fast 
and  loose  with  both  political  parties.    He  #was  one 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


295 


of  a  band  of  seven  Highland  chiefs  who  in  1740 
bound  themselves  by  mutual  compact  to  raise  their 
clans  for  the  Chevalier,  should  assistance  be  pro- 
cured from  France ;  yet  he  maintained  an  active  show 
of  zeal  for  the  Government,  and  when  Prince  Charles 
landed  in  1745  he  was  in  correspondence  with 
Duncan  Forbes  of  Culloden,  to  whom  he  even  sent 
word  of  the  raising  of  the  standard  at  Glenfinnan, 
referring  to  the  Prince  as  "  that  mad  and  unaccount- 
able gentleman."  Two  days  later  he  sent  one  of  his 
henchmen,  Fraser  of  Gortleg,  to*  the  Prince  at  Inver- 
garry,  asking  for  a  patent  to  be  Duke  of  Fraser,  and 
for  the  Lord  Lieutenancy  of  Inverness-shire,  which 
had  been  promised  him  by  the  Chevalier.  These  the 
Prince,  most  anxious  to  obtain  the  valuable  services 
of  his  clan,  agreed  to  grant,  and  sent  urgent  messages 
to  the  crafty  old  chief — he  was  close  on  eighty — to  do 
his  duty.  It  was  not  however  till  after  the  battle  of 
Preston  pans  had  been  won  that  Lord  Lovat  could  be 
induced  to  do  anything  for  the  cause.  Then  his 
action  was  most  characteristic.  He  sent  out  his  eldest 
son,  the  Master  of  Lovat,  at  the  head  of  three  hun- 
dred Frasers,  and  himself  remained  at  Beaufort,  in 
an  assumed  attitude  of  neutrality.  But  he  was  so 
long  in  coming  to  a  decision  that  the  Frasers  eventu- 
ally joined  the  Prince  too  late  to  carry  the  moral 
weight  so  eagerly  desired  by  the  Jacobite  party. 

When  the  Rising  had  failed,  Lord  Lovat  fled  to  the 
Western  Highlands,  where  he  was  discovered  after  a 


296     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

three-days'  search  on  an  island  in  Loch  Morar.  He 
was  taken  to  the  Tower,  tried  by  the  House  of  Lords, 
when  he  defended  himself  with  much  skill,  but  was 
found  guilty  of  high  treason,  and  was  beheaded.  He 
was  the  last  person  to  suffer  in  that  manner  in  Eng- 
land. He  met  his  death  with  dignity  and  courage. 
Lord  Lovat's  complex  character  has  been  thus  tersely 
described:  "A  ruffian,  a  liar,  a  traitor,  a  hypocrite,  a 
finished  courtier,  a  good  scholar,  a  cultured  savage." 

His  son  was  pardoned  in  1750,  and  afterwards  re- 
stored to  his  estates. . 

An  artificial  cutting  at  the  northeastern  extremity 
of  the  Caledonian  Canal  connects  the  Moray  Firth  with 
the  small  Loch  Dochfour  and  the  greater  Loch  Ness. 
About  half  way  down  the  latter  Glen  Urquhart  opens 
on  the  right.  Here  is  Temple  Pier,  close  to  the  site 
of  a  religious  house  of  the  Knights  Templar;  and 
crowning  a  rocky  point  beyond,  is  Castle  Urquhart,  a 
royal  stronghold  in  the  thirteenth  century,  that  figured 
conspicuously  in  the  War  of  Independence. 

It  was  enlarged  and  strengthened  by  Edward  L, 
who  twice  besieged  and  took  it.  In  1509  Castle 
Urquhart  passed  by  gift  of  James  IV.  to  the  family 
who  still  own  it,  the  Grants  of  Seafield. 

Balmacarron,  the  present  seat  of  the  Countess  of 
Seafield,  is  close  by  in  the  mouth  of  the  glen.  Further 
down,  on  the  left,  the  River  Foyers  empties  into  Loch 
Ness,  after  leaping  two  lofty  precipices — the  Falls  of 
Foyers — in  the  course  of  its  swift  descent  from  its 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


297 


source  in  the  Monaliadh  Mountains.  The  Falls  of 
Foyers,  whose  beauty  was  immortalized  by  Burns,  are 
now  utilized  for  the  power  required  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  aluminium. 

At  the  southern  end  of  Loch  Ness  is  Fort  Augustus, 
at  the  ancient  village  of  Kilcummin.  The  fort  was 
originally  erected  in  1716  to  overawe  the  Highlanders 
after  the  insurrection  of  1715,  and  fourteen  years  later 
it  was  strengthened  and  refortified  by  General  Wade, 
who  named  it,  out  of  compliment  to  William  Augustus, 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  then  a  boy  of  nine  years  old. 
Strange  to  say,  after  the  battle  of  Culloden,  it  became 
for  two  months  the  headquarters  of  the  Prince  after 
whom  it  was  named,  and  it  was  from  Fort  Augustus 
that  Cumberland  sent  out  parties  to  pillage  and  burn 
the  houses  of  the  Jacobite  chiefs,  and  generally  to 
ravage  the  surrounding  country. 

It  was  garrisoned  by  the  British  Government  until 
1857,  when  it  was  sold  to  the  fourteenth  Lord  Lovat, 
who  gave  it  to  the  English  Benedictines.  Here  on 
the  site  of  the  old  fort  this  Order  has  erected  a  college 
and  a  monastery. 

The  ruins  of  Invergarry  Castle,  a  seventeenth  cen- 
tury building,  stand  on  the  west  shore  of  Loch  Oich, 
on  a  rock  called  Creag-an-f  hitich — the  Raven's  Rock — 
from  which  the  Clan  of  Macdonald  of  Glengarry  takes 
its  war-cry.  It  forms  a  strikingly  picturesque  object 
as  seen  to-day  from  the  Caledonian  Canal.  The  Castle, 
which  was  the  seat  of  the  chief  of  Macdonalds  of 


298     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Glengarry,  was  burned  down  by  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland in  1746.  The  main  line  of  the  Glengarry 
Macdonalds  is  extinct  and  the  property  is  now  in 
other  hands. 

Achnacarry,  the  Castle  of  Cameron  of  Lochiel, 
also  burned  by  the  Duke,  is  about  a  mile  from  Loch 
Lochy,  on  the  banks  of  the  River  Arkaig,  which  flows 
from  Loch  Arkaig  to  the  larger  loch.  The  estate,  which 
was  forfeited  in  1746,  was  restored  thirty-eight  years 
later,  and  still  belongs  to  the  family.  LochieFs  present 
residence  is  close  to  the  old  ruin. 

Inverlochy  Castle,  near  the  southern  termination  of 
the  canal,  is  said  to  occupy  the  site  of  an  ancient 
Pictish  town.  The  Castle  may  have  been  built  by 
the  Comyns  in  the  thirteenth  century,  as  the  keep  at 
the  northwest  corner  is  called  the  Comyn's  Tower, 
and  the  architecture  and  style  of  the  masonry  are  of 
that  period.  The  most  famous  event  connected  with 
its  history  is  the  battle  fought  there  on  February  2, 
1645,  between  the  rival  forces  of  Montrose  and 
Argyll.  Montrose  had  concluded  a  fierce  raid  into 
Argyllshire,  where  for  several  weeks  he  had  ravaged 
and  burned  the  country  of  the  Campbells,  and  was 
moving  with  his  army  towards  Inverness.  While 
lying  at  Kilcummin  (now  Fort  Augustus),  he  learned 
that  Argyll  was  at  Inverlochy  with  a  large  force,  and 
determined  to  surprise  him.  Although  it  was  the 
depth  of  winter,  and  the  passes  were  filled  with  snow, 
he  with  extraordinary  exertion  rapidly  crossed  the 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


299 


deep  pass  of  Corryarrick  to  the  head  waters  of  the 
Spey,  turned  down  Glenroy  and  the  Spean  Valley, 
and  thence,  concealed  by  a  shoulder  of  Ben  Nevis,  he 
suddenly  came  upon  his  enemy  from  the  east,  a 
direction  whence  he  was  least  expected,  on  the  evening 
of  February  1st. 

The  battle  that  took  place  the  next  day  ended  in 
a  complete  and  nearly  bloodless  victory  for  the  Roy- 
alists. (The  number  of  their  killed  is  almost  incred- 
ibly given  as  three  privates  and  an  officer.)  Argyll, 
who  took  no  part  himself  in  the  fight,  but  viewed  the 
rout  of  his  army  from  a  galley  on  the  loch,  escaped, 
but  nearly  one- half  of  his  men  are  said  to  have  been 
slaughtered  in  the  pursuit.  This  battle  is  most  graphi- 
cally described  by  Scott  in  A  Legend  of  Montrose. 

Inverness-shire  is  more  closely  associated  with  the 
Jacobite  Rising  known  as  "the  '45"  than  any  other 
county  in  Scotland.  It  was  on  the  island  of  Eriska 
that  Prince  Charles  Edward  first  set  foot  on  Scottish 
soil;  at  Highbridge  occurred  the  first  outbreak  of 
hostilities ;  at  Glenfinnan  the  standard  was  raised ;  at 
Invergarry  the  chiefs  signed  a  bond  to  stand  or  fall 
together;  on  Culloden  Muir  was  fought  the  closing 
and  decisive  battle  of  the  campaign ;  and  finally  it 
was  the  wild,  mountainous  region  of  western  Inver- 
ness-shire, and  the  desolate  islands  of  the  Western 
Hebrides,  that  received  and  concealed  the  Prince 
during  those  five  months'  wanderings  which  constitute 
the  most  romantic  episode  in  the  history — one  might 


300     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


almost  say  of  any  country,  but  most  certainly  of 
Scotland. 

It  may  be  well  then  in  this  chapter  to  give  a  brief 
outline  of  that  remarkable  adventure.1 

Charles  Edward  Lewis  Casimir  was  the  elder  son 
of  James  (son  of  James  VII.),  sometimes  called  the 
Pretender,  or  the  old  Pretender,  and  sometimes  the 
Chevalier  de  St.  George.  His  mother  was  Clementina, 
granddaughter  of  John  Sobieski,  King  of  Poland. 
He  was  born  at  Rome  on  December  20,  1720  (old 
style),  and  thus  was  but  twenty-four  years  old  when, 
despairing  of  obtaining  that  aid  from  France  which 
had  all  along  been  deemed  absolutely  necessary  for 
the  success  of  any  attempt  to  place  his  father  on  the 
British  throne,  he  determined  to  try  what  daring  and 
his  own  winning  personality  might  accomplish.  On 
June  22,  1745,  the  Prince,  attended  by  seven  adher- 
ents, embarked  at  Nantes  on  board  La  Doutelle  and 
twelve  days  later  he  was  joined  by  the  Elizabeth,  a 
French  ship-of-war,  privately  fitted  out.  During  the 
voyage  the  Elizabeth  attacked  a  British  man-of-war 
and  received  such  injuries  as  compelled  her  to  put 
back  to  France.  The  Doutelle  proceeded  alone,  and 
on  July  23,  a  month  from  the  date  of  embarkation, 
the  Prince  landed  on  the  bleak  little  island  of  Eriska, 

1  The  following  sketch  is  taken  mainly  from  the  Itinerary  of 
Prince  Charles  Edward,  by  Walter  B.  Blaikie,  published  in  1897  by 
the  Scottish  History  Society.  It  is  the  accepted  authority  on  the 
Rising.  Mr.  Blaikie's  dates  and  spelling  of  names  of  persons  and 
places  have  been  followed  in  every  instance. 


Prince  Charlie 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


301 


in  the  outer  Hebrides,  and  spent  his  first  night,  in 
what  he  looked  upon  as  his  father's  rightful  kingdom, 
in  the  cottage  of  a  tacksman  (tenant)  of  the  Macdon- 
alds  of  Clanranald.  Here  on  the  following  day  he 
received  a  bitter  disappointment.  Alexander  Mac- 
donald  of  Boisdale,  brother  of  Clanranald,  chief  of 
an  important  branch  of  the  Clan  Macdonald,  came  to 
assure  him  of  the  hopelessness  of  the  expedition. 
Without  men,  arms  and  money,  he  declared,  nothing 
could  be  done,  nor  could  the  clans  be  counted  upon  to 
rise.  He  wound  up  by  begging  the  Prince  to  return 
home.  To  which  the  latter  made  reply,  "  I  am  come 
home,  sir,  and  can  entertain  no  notion  of  returning  to 
the  place  whence  I  came.  I  am  persuaded  that  my 
faithful  Highlanders  will  stand  by  me."  Boisdale 
left  him,  persisting  in  his  refusal  to  influence  his 
brother  to  call  out  his  clan,  and  the  Prince  proceeded 
to  the  mainland,  landing  at  Borradale  in  Arisaig,  the 
country  of  Clanranald,  on  July  25.  Young  Clanra- 
nald, declining  to  follow  the  cautious  policy  of  his 
father  and  uncle,  visited  the  Prince  on  the  Doutelle 
and,  after  some  hesitation,  embraced  his  cause  very 
heartily. 

At  Borradale,  where  Prince  Charles  remained  for 
over  a  fortnight,  most  disheartening  news  was  received 
from  Macleod  of  Macleod  and  Sir  Alexander  Mac- 
donald of  Sleat.  These  two  Skye  chiefs,  upon  whose 
adherence  the  Prince  had  confidently  relied,  not  only 
utterly  refused  to  join  in  the  enterprise,  but  actually 


302     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

gave  active  aid  to  the  Government.  It  was  from 
Macleod  that  the  authorities  first  heard  of  the  Prince's 
landing — in  a  letter  written  by  him  to  President 
Forbes  immediately  after  the  departure  of  young 
Clanranald,  who  had  been  sent  by  the  Prince  on  a 
mission  to  Skye. 

So  desperate  was  the  outlook  at  this  juncture  that 
all  of  those  about  the  Prince  joined  in  endeavoring  to 
persuade  him  to  abandon  the  attempt  and  to  return  to 
France.  His  reply  was  that  could  he  find  but  six 
men  willing  to  follow  him,  he  would  choose  rather  to 
skulk  among  the  mountains  of  Scotland  than  to  turn 
back. 

The  chief  of  the  Camerons  was  Donald  Cameron  of 
Lochiel,  to  whom  his  father,  who  was  still  alive,  had 
resigned  his  chiefship  and  his  lands,  himself  residing 
for  the  most  part  in  France.  Lochiel  came  to  Borra- 
dale  bent  upon  dissuading  the  Prince  from  making 
the  attempt,  but  the  result  of  the  interview  was  his 
own  promise  to  join.  Charles  reproachfully  announced 
his  intention  to  raise  the  Royal  standard  "with  the 
few  friends  I  have.  .  .  .  Lochiel,  who  my  father  has 
often  told  me  was  our  firmest  friend,  may  stay  at 
home  and  learn  from  the  newspapers  the  fate  of  his 
Prince ! " 

The  effect  of  this  speech  on  the  high-minded  and 
sensitive  nature  of  one  whose  family  had  been  con- 
sistently loyal  to  the  exiled  house  may  readily  be 
imagined.     Lochiel  declared  that  not  he  alone,  but 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


303 


H  every  man  over  whom  nature  or  fortune  has  given 
me  power "  should  share  the  Prince's  fate,  and  after 
taking  security  for  the  value  of  his  estate,  and  receiv- 
ing an  assurance  that  Macdonald  of  Glengarry  would 
send  out  his  clan,  he  returned  home  to  raise  his  men. 
Upon  this  decision  of  Lochiel  the  entire  fate  of  the 
expedition  then  hung,  for  it  is  asserted  that  had  he 
persisted  in  his  refusal,  no  other  chief  would  have 
consented  to  join  and  the  affair  must  have  died  a 
natural  death. 

The  "gentle  Lochiel,"  who  exercised  so  important 
an  influence  at  this  juncture,  was  the  grandson  of 
Ewan  Dhu  of  Lochiel,  the  gallant  chief  who  lent 
serviceable  aid  to  the  Royal  cause  in  1652  in  the  civil 
wars,  and  who  in  1654,  having  resisted  Cromwell's 
invasion  until  resistance  could  no  longer  avail,  was 
given  the  most  honorable  terms  of  surrender.  "  No 
oath  was  required  of  Lochiel  to  Cromwell,  but  his 
word  of  honor  to  live  in  peace."  The  chief  joined 
Viscount  Dundee  when  he  came  to  raise  the  clans  for 
King  James  in  1689,  and  with  his  clan  contributed 
largely  to  the  victory  of  Killiecrankie. 

The  Cameron  country  lies  in  Lochaber,  about  the 
head  of  Loch  Linnhe,  and  in  1745  they  could  muster 
eight  hundred  fighting  men. 

It  having  been  decided  to  raise  the  standard  of 
James  VIII.  at  Glenfinnan,  at  the  head  of  Loch  Shiel, 
on  August  19  messengers  were  sent  throughout  the 
country  calling  upon  all  those  who  favored  the  cause 


304     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOMANT1C. 


to  meet  the  Prince  there.  A  guard  was  formed  of 
the  Clanranald  Macdonalds,  and  on  the  11th  of  Au- 
gust the  Prince  went  by  sea  to  Kinloch-Moidart. 
Here  the  young  adventurer  was  joined  by  John  Mur- 
ray of  Broughton,  afterwards  the  traitor,  whom  he 
appointed  his  Secretary  of  State,  and  here  likewise  the 
enterprise  met  with  almost  its  first  encouraging  inci- 
dents. Gordon  of  Glenbucket,  an  old  Aberdeenshire 
Jacobite,  arrived,  bringing  with  him  as  prisoner  an 
officer  captured  on  his  way  to  take  command  at  Fort 
William.1  At  about  the  same  time  two  companies  of 
the  Royal  Scots,  a  regiment  of  regulars,  were  taken 
prisoner  by  a  hastily  assembled  party  of  Highlanders 
on  the  shores  of  what  is  now  the  Caledonian  Canal. 
This  opening  act  in  the  campaign  began  in  an  acci- 
dental and  somewhat  humorous  manner.  The  Royal 
Scots  were  marching  from  Port  Augustus  to  reinforce 
Fort  William  and  were  close  upon  Highb ridge,  a 

1  Fort  William  commanded  the  little  town  then  called  Mary- 
burgh  (after  Queen  Mary),  which  was,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  only  town  besides  Inverness  in  the  entire 
county.  "  It  was  originally  designed  as  a  sutlery  to  the  garrison 
in  so  barren  a  country,  where  little  can  be  had  for  the  support 
of  the  troops."  In  1745  it  was  the  strongest  fortress  in  Scotland. 
The  old  fort  has  now  disappeared  and  the  railway  station  occu- 
pies its  site,  while  the  town  has  become  a  favorite  place  of  tourist 
resort,  especially  attractive  as  a  starting  point  for  the  ascent  of 
Ben  Nevis  (4406  feet),  up  which  a  good  road  leads  to  the  meteoro- 
logical observatory  that  crowns  the  summit.  Fort  William  is  also 
now  the  starting  point  of  the  new  railway  to  Mallaig,  which  in 
April,  1901,  opened  to  all  the  world  the  wildest  recesses  of  the 
Western  Highlands. 


Ben  Nevis,  from  Corpach 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


305 


lofty  stone  arch,  built  about  1724  by  General  Wade 
over  the  Spean,  when  the  dreaded  sound  of  the  bag- 
pipes broke  upon  their  unaccustomed  Lowland  ears, 
and  they  were  dismayed  to  find  their  way  blocked  by 
what  appeared  to  be  a  considerable  body  of  High- 
landers. "  The  object  of  their  alarm  was  in  reality  a 
band  of  only  ten  or  twelve  Macdonalds  of  Keppoch's 
Clan,  but  by  skipping  and  leaping  about,  displaying 
their  swords  and  firelocks,  and  by  holding  out  their 
plaids  between  each  other  they  contrived  to  make  a 
very  formidable  appearance."  Two  scouts  being  sent 
forward  were  seized  and  detained,  whereupon  the 
officer  in  command  decided  to  turn  back.  When, 
however,  the  party  had  reached  the  narrow  defile 
between  Loch  Lochy  and  the  high  ground  on  the 
east,  the  Highlanders,  reinforced  by  some  of  Glen- 
garry's people,  began  firing  down  upon  them  from  the 
hillsides.  The  retreat  was  hastened,  but  by  the  time 
they  had  reached  Laggan,  at  the  upper  end  of  the 
loch,  other  clansmen,  attracted  by  the  sound  of  the 
firing,  wrere  seen  to  be  assembling  in  such  force  as  to 
render  the  situation  quite  desperate.  Keppoch  there- 
upon offered  reasonable  terms  and  the  Royal  Scots 
surrendered. 

On  August  19  the  Prince  reached  Glenfinnan,  but 
to  his  great  disappointment  none  of  the  clans  had 
assembled.  Only  about  two  hundred  of  Clanranald's 
men  were  present,  and  the  actual  raising  of  the  stand- 
ard was  entrusted  to  the  Marquis  of  Tullibardine, 
Vol.  II.— 20 


306      SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

whose  younger  brother  then  held  the  title  (Duke  of 
Atholl)  and  estates  forfeited  by  the  Marquis  for  taking 
part  in  the  ?15.  This  gentleman,  who  was  one  of  a 
party  of  seven  Jacobites  who  had  come  with  the 
Prince  from  France,  was  in  such  feeble  health  that 
two  Highlanders  had  to  support  him  to  the  top  of 
the  small  elevation  selected  for  the  ceremony.1  "  He 
then  flung  upon  the  mountain  breeze  that  flag  which, 
shooting  like  a  streamer  from  the  North,  was  soon 
to  spread  such  omens  of  woe  and  terror  over  the 
peaceful  vales  of  Britain."  A  declaration  in  the 
name  of  James  VIII.  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain, 
a  commission  appointing  the  Prince  to  be  Regent,  and 
a  manifesto  by  the  Prince,  were  then  read. 

In  the  afternoon  the  Prince  was  greatly  cheered  by 
the  arrival  of  seven  hundred  Camerons,  headed  by 
Lochiel,  and  three  hundred  Macdonalds,  under  Kep- 
poch. 

A  few  days  later  intelligence  was  received  of  the 
steps  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  suppress  the 
Rising.  A  reward  of  £30,000  had  been  offered  for 
the  person  of  the  Prince,  who  retaliated  by  offering 
£30,  which  he  was  afterwards  induced  to  change  to 
£30,000,  for  the  apprehension  of  the  "  Elector  of 
Hanover."  Word  was  also  brought  that  General 
Cope  was  marching  to  Fort  Augustus.  On  the  26th 
of  August  the  Prince  went  to  Invergarry  Castle,  the 
seat  of  the  chief  of  the  Macdonalds  of  Glengarry. 

1  A  monumental  tower  commemorates  the  event. 


I N  V  ERN  ESS-SHI  EE. 


307 


Glengarry  himself  ostensibly  declared  for  the  Gov- 
ernment; but,  as  arranged,  his  clan  was  raised  for 
the  Prince  by  his  second  son,  Angus.  The  eldest 
son,  Alexander,  had  gone  to  France  in  May  on  a 
mission  to  the  Prince,  had  missed  him,  and  was  cap- 
tured at  sea  in  November,  while  returning,  and 
imprisoned  in  the  Tower.  He  therefore  took  no 
part  in  the  Rising.1  His  brother  Angus  was  acci- 
dentally killed  after  the  battle  of  Falkirk. 

While  at  Invergarry  news  was  received  that  Cope 
was  marching  towards  Corryarrick,  the  mountain  pass 
about  ten  miles  south  of  Fort  Augustus.  A  detach- 
ment was  sent  forward  to  seize  the  pass,  and  the  rest 
of  the  army  followed  the  next  day. 

After  crossing  the  Corryarrick  Pass,  the  Highland- 
ers, now  augmented  by  various  bodies  of  recruits, 
found  that  General  Cope  had  turned  aside  to  march 
to  Inverness,  thus  avoiding  the  battle  that  the  others 
were  longing  to  give.  As  he  had  too  much  the 
start  of  them  for  pursuit,  it  was  determined  to  march 
at  once  on  the  Lowlands,  with  a  view  to  the  capture 
of  Edinburgh. 

The  district  of  Badenoch — the  valley  of  the  middle 
Spey — which  the  Highland  army  was  now  passing 
through,  was  anciently  the  territory  of  the  Comyns. 
After  their  subjugation  by  Robert  Bruce,  it  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Earls  of  Moray,  and  later  to 

1  This  is  the  individual  whom  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  has  lately  gib- 
beted with  infamy  as  "  Pickle  the  Spy." 


308      SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Alexander  Stewart,  Earl  of  Buchan  (a  son  of  Robert 
II.),  the  "Wolf  of  Badenoch."  This  Earl's  chief 
seat  was  Ruthven  Castle,  a  Corny n  stronghold  situ- 
ated on  a  conical  hill  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Spey, 
about  a  mile  from  Kingussie.1  It  was  rebuilt  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  in  1718  the  site  was  taken  by 
the  Government  for  barracks  in  which  to  lodge  the 
troops  stationed  there  to  preserve  order  in  the  district. 

From  the  foot  of  Corryarrick  a  small  detachment 
of  Highlanders  made  an  unsuccessful  effort  to  capture 
these  barracks.  They  were  driven  off  with  some 
slight  loss,  but  brought  back  with  them  an  important 
prisoner  in  the  person  of  Ewan  Macpherson  of  Cluny, 
a  son-in-law  of  Lord  Lovat,  and  a  cousin  of  Lochiel. 
They  captured  him  at  Cluny  Castle,  a  little  further 
up  the  Spey.  Cluny  had  been  given  a  commission  in 
a  regiment  then  being  raised  by  Lord  Loudon,  and 
had  left  Sir  John  Cope  only  the  day  before  to  raise 
his  clansmen  for  the  Government.  But  he  had  been 
contemptuously  treated  by  Cope,  who  with  extra- 
ordinary fatuity  could  not  see  the  difference  between 
a  captain  of  the  line  and  a  Highland  chief,  whose 
word  was  law  to  a  whole  clan,  and  who  could  com- 
mand the  unquestioned  service  of  four  hundred  clay- 
mores.   He  was  furious  at  Cope,  and  although  it  is 

1  The  ruins  are  now  a  conspicuous  object  in  the  landscape  visible 
from  the  line  of  the  Highland  Railway,  near  Kingussie. 

The  ruins  of  another  of  the  Comyn  Castles,  Loch-an-Eilan,  oc- 
cupy a  lonely  position  on  an  island  in  a  loch  in  the  Rothiemurchus 
Forest,  lower  down  in  Strathspey. 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


309 


believed  that  he  honestly  intended  to  serve  the  Gov- 
ernment, whose  commission  he  had  accepted,  yet  the 
persuasions  of  his  Jacobite  friends  and  relations  so 
acted  on  him  that,  after  ten  days'  imprisonment  in  the 
Jacobite  camp,  he  again  returned  home  to  raise  his 
clan ;  but  now  for  Prince  Charles,  whom  he  after- 
wards joined  at  Edinburgh,  and  whom  he  served  to 
the  end. 

At  Perth,  where  the  Prince  halted  for  a  week,  he 
was  joined  by  a  number  of  distinguished  men,  among 
others  by  Lord  George  Murray,  brother  of  the  Jacob- 
ite Marquis  of  Tullibardine,  and  the  Whig  Duke  of 
Atholl.  This  gentleman  was  the  best  soldier  the 
Prince  had,  and  subsequently  became  his  commander- 
in-chief.  Leaving  Perth  the  Highland  army  marched 
to  Dunblane,  and  crossing  the  Forth  at  Boquhan, 
went  by  way  of  Stirling  and  Linlithgow  to  Edin- 
burgh, as  already  narrated.  Then  came  the  battle 
of  Preston  pans  (September  21)  and  the  advance  into 
England,  which  began  on  the  31st  of  October,  when 
the  army  left  Edinburgh.  It  arrived  at  Derby, 
the  southernmost  point  reached,  on  December  4th. 
On  the  6th  the  retreat  began ;  two  weeks  later  the 
Highlanders  crossed  the  Esk  back  into  Scotland,  by 
way  of  Annan,  Dumfries,  Hamilton  and  Glasgow, 
where  the  Prince  remained  from  December  26th  to 
January  3d.  From  Glasgow  he  went  to  Stirling, 
which  he  took,  but  was  unable  to  take  the  Castle, 
which  held  out  for  King  George.    Fixing  his  head- 


310     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

quarters  at  Bannockburn,  regular  siege  was  laid  to  the 
Castle,  and  on  the  17th  he  marched  to  Falkirk  and 
there  defeated  General  Hawley,  who  had  advanced 
from  Edinburgh  to  attack  him.  A  fortnight  later, 
hearing  that  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  had  joined  the 
Government  army  as  commander-in-chief,  the  High- 
land chiefs,  in  spite  of  their  recent  victory,  feeling  too 
weak  to  resist  him,  insisted  on  the  Prince  retreating 
to  the  Highlands,  and  the  march  north  began  on  Feb- 
ruary 1st. 

The  army  now  separated  into  three  divisions;  one 
under  Lord  George  Murray  and  Lord  John  Drum- 
mond  took  the  coast  road  by  Montrose  and  Aberdeen ; 
another  marched  by  way  of  Cou par- Angus  and  Balla- 
ter  to  the  north  of  Aberdeenshire,  where  it  rejoined 
the  first  division  ;  while  the  Prince  led  the  clans  north 
by  Crieff  and  Dalwhinnie  through  the  Central  High- 
lands to  Inverness. 

On  the  12th  of  February  (just  five  months  and 
a  half  since  he  had  marched  to  the  south)  the  Prince 
crossed  into  Inverness-shire  near  the  head  of  Loch 
Ericht,  passed  two  nights  at  Ruthven  barracks  (which 
had  then  been  taken  by  some  of  his  people),  and  on 
the  16th  arrived  at  Moy  Hall,  the  seat  of  the 
chief  of  Macintosh,  which  is  situated  at  the  head  of 
Loch  Moy  in  the  northeastern  part  of  Inverness-shire. 
The  Macintoshes  are  one  of  the  principal  branches 
of  the  Clan  Chattan  (the  Macphersons  and  Farquhar- 
sons  being  the  others).    The  chiefship  of  the  Clan 


INVEKNESS-SHIRE. 


311 


Chattan  was  ever  a  point  in  dispute  between  the 
Macphersons  and  the  Macintoshes,  and  to  this  day 
is  a  matter  of  controversy.  The  ruins  of  the  ancient 
Castle  of  the  family  stand  on  a  small  island  in  Loch 
Moy.  It  was  occupied  for  upwards  of  three  hundred 
years — that  is  from  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century  down  to  the  year  1665. 

When  Prince  Charles  reached  Moy  Hall  the  chief 
was  absent,  having  in  fact  declared  for  the  Govern- 
ment. Lady  Macintosh  however  received  him  with 
the  utmost  cordiality.  She  had  been  actively  employed 
during  her  Lord's  absence  in  raising  his  clan  for  the 
Prince,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  not  alone 
her  husband,  but  her  father,  Farquharson  of  Inver- 
cauld,  was  friendly  to  the  Government.  It  was  her 
exertions  at  this  time  that  gained  for  her  the  sobriquet 
of  "Colonel  Anne." 

Lord  Loudon,  commanding  the  garrison  at  Inver- 
ness, hearing  that  the  Prince  was  at  Moy  Hall  with 
only  a  small  party,  set  out  with  a  force  of  about  fifteen 
hundred  men  in  the  hope  of  surprising  him  in  the 
night.  Word  of  this  being  brought  to  the  Dowager 
Lady  Macintosh  at  Inverness,  she  instantly  dispatched 
a  boy  to  give  warning.  On  the  road  he  was  overtaken 
by  Loudon's  soldiers,  but  he  hid  in  a  ditch  till  they  had 
passed,  and  then  by  a  short  cut  reached  Moy  Hall  be- 
fore them,  at  five  in  the  morning;  .  .  and  though  the 
morning  was  exceedingly  cold,  the  boy  was  in  a  top 
sweat,  having  made  very  good  use  of  his  time.  .  .  .  Mr. 


3 1 12     SCOTLAND.  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Gibb  (the  Prince's  Master  of  the  Household),  upon 
the  alarm,  having  been  sleeping  in  his  clothes,  stept 
out,  with  his  pistols  under  his  arm,  and  in  the  close 
he  saw  the  Prince  walking,  with  his  bonnet  above  his 
nightcap  and  his  shoes  down  in  the  heels,  and  Lady 
Macintosh,  in  her  smock-petticoat,  running  through 
the  close,  speaking  loudly  and  expressing  her  anxiety 
about  the  Prince's  safety."  1 

For  this  the  Lady  had  however  already  taken  other 
measures.  A  blacksmith  named  Fraser.  curious  to  see 
the  Prince,  had  come  to  Mdy  Hall  the  evening  before, 
and  him  she  sent  out  with  tour  others  to  patrol  the 
Inverness  road,  beyond  the  line  of  the  guards  and  sen- 
tries. On  perceiving  Lord  Loudon's  force  approach- 
ing. Fraser  stationed  his  four  men  at  a  little  distance 
the  one  from  the  other,  and  firing  his  musket  at  the 
advancing  body,  ordered  them  to  do  the  same. 
Fraser's  shot  killed  the  Macleod's  piper,  the  most 
celebrated  musician  of  the  Highlands  ;  the  others  also 
took  effect,  and  when  Fraser  followed  up  the  attack 
by  calling  out  valiantly  for  imaginary  regiments  of 
Camerons  and  Macdonalds  to  advance,  the  soldiers 
were  seized  with  panic,  and  wheeling  about  in  the 
dark,  the  whole  body  fled  in  utmost  confusion  back  to 
Inverness.  where  they  arrived  in  a  state  of  extreme 
distress  from  bruises,  exhaustion  and  mortification  of 
mind."    This  event  is  called  the  Rout  of  Moy. 

"  The  old  house  was  burned  down  early  in  the 
1  Aaount  of  JTr.  Gibb,  Ma&Ur  of  tht  Household. 


IXYERXESS-SHIRE. 


313 


nineteenth  century  and  its  site  is  marked  by  a  stone 
near  the  garden.  The  bed  in  which  the  Prince  slept 
and  the  bonnet  he  wore  are  still  preserved  in  Moy."  1 

Two  days  later  the  Highland  army,  which  had  as- 
sembled in  considerable  force  at  Moy,  entered  Inver- 
ness close  upon  the  heels  of  Lord  Loudon's  men,  who 
withdrew  across  the  Firth  to  the  Black  Isle,  leaving 
a  garrison  to  defend  Inverness  Castle,  then  called 
Fort  George.  On  the  19th  Lord  George  Murray 
arrived  with  his  Lowland  troops  and  joined  the 
Prince  at  Culloden  House.  Two  days  after  the 
Highlanders  entered  Inverness  the  Castle  surrendered 
(February  20). 

In  Inverness  or  its  neighborhood  the  Prince  re- 
mained until  the  13th  of  April,  with  the  exception  of 
ten  days  spent  at  Elgin,  where  he  had  a  severe  attack 
of  illness.  The  situation  at  this  time  was  briefly  as 
follows. 

On  the  east  Elgin  and  Xairn  and  part  of  Banff 
and  Aberdeenshire  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Jacobites, 
having  been  garrisoned  by  Lord  George  Murray  on 
his  inarch  to  the  Xorth,  while  Aberdeen,  evacuated  on 
February  22,  shortly  after  the  landing  there  of  some 
auxiliaries  from  France,  was  now  the  objective  point 
of  the  Government  army  marching  from  Perth  under 
command  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland. 

Across  the  Beauly  Firth  on  the  north  Lord  Lou- 
don was  watching  for  an  opportunity  to  join  the  Duke 

1  Itinerary  of  Prince  Charles  Edward,  W.  B.  Blaikie. 


314     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


of  Cumberland,  and  on  the  southwest  Fort  William 
and  Fort  Augustus  were  both  held  by  the  Govern- 
ment. 

Fort  Augustus,  situated  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
country  loyal  to  the  Prince,  was  occupied  by  a  Gov- 
ernment garrison  and  the  Jacobites  determined  to  cap- 
ture it.  Detachments  of  French  troops  and  High- 
landers were  sent  to  reduce  it,  and  after  a  two  days' 
siege  it  surrendered  March  5.  A  similar  attempt 
made  on  Fort  William  was  unsuccessful,  and  after  a 
month's  siege  the  troops  were  withdrawn. 

In  the  meantime  the  Duke  of  Perth  had  succeeded 
in  driving  Lord  Loudon,  with  whom  was  President 
Forbes,  out  of  Sutherland  and  scattering  his  force, 
while  Lord  George  Murray  had  executed  a  brilliant 
operation  in  Perthshire,  whereby,  with  the  aid  of 
Cluny  Macpherson,  thirty  of  the  Government  posts 
were  simultaneously  captured  (March  19).  Three 
days  later  the  Prince's  people  had  another  success,  the 
skirmish  of  Keith  (in  Banffshire).  The  place  was 
garrisoned  (for  the  Government)  by  thirty  of  the 
Duke  of  Kingston's  dragoons  and  seventy  Campbells. 
These,  with  the  exception  of  about  nine  killed  and  as 
many  more  who  escaped,  were  captured  by  some 
French  troops  and  a  party  of  John  Roy  Stewart's 
Edinburgh  regiment  under  a  French  officer,  Major 
Glascoe,  and  carried  off  to  Lord  John  Drummond's 
headquarters  beyond  the  Spey.  About  the  same  time 
however  the  Jacobites  suffered  severely  in  the  loss  of 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


315 


the  English  sloop-of-war,  the  Hazard,  which  had 
been  captured  by  the  Jacobites  in  the  preceding  No- 
vember in  Montrose  harbor.  It  had  been  renamed 
the  Prince  Charles,  and  was  now  returning  from 
France  with  supplies  of  men  and  money.  Closely 
pressed  by  some  English  cruisers  she  ran  ashore  at 
Tongue,  near  Lord  Reay's  house  in  Sutherland,  and 
landed  the  crew  and  cargo,  both  of  which  immedi- 
ately fell  into  the  hands  of  Lord  Reay.  A  party  was 
sent  under  Lord  Cromarty  to  recruit  in  the  extreme 
North  and  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  the  men  and 
money  taken  by  Lord  Reay,  but  it  was  surprised  and 
captured  at  Dun  robin  Castle  on  the  day  preceding 
the  battle  of  Culloden. 

The  Duke  of  Cumberland  meanwhile  had  quitted 
Aberdeen  and  had  succeeded  in  moving  his  entire 
army  across  the  Spey.  He  reached  Nairn  on  April 
14th  and  halted  there  the  next  day  to  celebrate  his 
birthday.  The  loss  of  the  money  in  the  ship  captured 
at  Tongue  was  a  serious  blow  to  the  Jacobites,  now 
much  hampered  for  want  of  funds ;  arrears  of  pay 
were  due  the  army,  and  the  suffering  caused  by  John 
Hay  of  Restalrig's  faulty  administration  of  the  com- 
missariat department  (he  had  replaced  John  Murray 
of  Broughton,  who  was  ill)  had  resulted  in  many  of 
the  men  going  off  on  their  own  account  in  search  of 
food.  When  a  night  attack  on  the  Government 
troops  at  Nairn  was  resolved  upon,  and  messengers 
were  sent  out  to  bring  these  stragglers  in,  some  of 


316     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

them  are  reported  to  have  said  that  they  would  prefer 
to  be  shot  on  the  spot  rather  than  be  made  to  endure 
their  hunger  any  longer.  The  half-famished  condition 
of  the  men,  the  great  darkness  of  the  uight,  and  the 
rough  nature  of  the  ground,  so  delayed  the  march 
that  when  the  army  was  within  three  miles  of  Xairn 
it  was  found  to  be  too  close  on  to  daylight  for  any 
chance  of  success,  and  the  Highlanders  were  marched 
back  to  Culloden  Muir. 

"  Upon  our  return  to  the  Muir  of  Culloden,  tho* 

the  P          had  given  orders  for  bringing  meat  and 

drink  for  us  to  the  field,  which  our  men  not  expecting, 
through  their  great  want  of  sleep,  meat  and  drink, 
many  slipt  off  to  take  some  refreshment  in  Inverness, 
Culloden,  and  the  neighborhood,  and  others  to  three  or 
f  >ur  miles  distance,  where  they  had  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances ;  and  the  said  refreshment  so  lulled  them  asleep, 
that  designing  only  to  take  one  hour's  rest  or  two,  they 
were  afterwards  surprised  and  killed  in  their  beds."  1 

The  Prince  returned  to  Culloden  House,  where  his 
sole  refreshment  that  morning  consisted  of  a  bit  of 
bread  and  some  whisky.  Provisions  having  been 
obtained  however,  at  eleven  o'clock  a  dinner  of  "a 
roasted  side  of  lamb  and  two  fowls"  was  about  to  be 
served  when  word  was  brought  that  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland  was  marching  from  Nairn.  The  Prince 
instantly  hurried  off  to  collect  his  men  and  to  prepare 
to  give  battle,  entirely  against  the  advice  of  the  chiefs, 

1  Lockhart  Papers. 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


317 


who  urged  that,  in  the  exhausted  and  depleted  condition 
of  the  army,  this  should  on  no  account  be  risked.  But 
finding  the  Prince  determined,  they  reluctantly  gave  in, 
and  the  army  was  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle.  Shortly 
before  one  o'clock  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  drew  up 
his  army,  about  five  hundred  paces  away.  The  action 
was  begun  by  the  artillery  on  both  sides,  but  before 
long  the  Highlanders  had  suffered  such  losses  from  the 
enemy's  well-directed  fire  that  a  charge  was  ordered. 

"  Notwithstanding  that  the  three  files  of  the  front 
line  of  English  poured  forth  their  incessant  fire  of 
musketry  —  notwithstanding  that  the  cannon,  now 
loaded  with  grape-shot,  swept  the  field  as  with  a 
hailstorm — notwithstanding  the  flank  fire  of  Wolfe's 
regiment — onward,  onward  went  the  headlong  High- 
landers, flinging  themselves  into,  rather  than  rushing 
upon,  the  lines  of  the  enemy,  which  indeed  they  did 
not  see  for  smoke  till  involved  among  their  weapons. 
[Qn  the  right  wing]  all  that  courage,  all  that  despair 
could  do,  was  done.  It  was  a  moment  of  dreadful  and 
agonizing  suspense  —  but  only  a  moment — for  the 
whirlwind  does  not  reap  the  forest  with  greater 
rapidity  than  the  Highlanders  cleared  the  line. 
Nevertheless,  almost  every  man  in  their  front  rank, 
chiefs  and  gentlemen,  fell  before  the  deadly  weapons 
which  they  had  braved ;  and  although  the  enemy  gave 
way,  it  was  not  till  every  bayonet  was  bent  and  bloody 
with  the  strife."  1 

1  History  of  the  Rebellion,  1745-48,  by  R.  Chambers. 


318      SCOTLAND.  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


The  clan?  engaged  in  this  desperate  charge  were 
the  Maelaehlans,  the  Maclean.-,  the  Macintoshes, 
the  Frasers,  the  Stewarts  and  the  Camerons.  The 
Macdonalds  had  been  much  incensed  at  being  placed 
on  the  left  wing.  Add  to  this  what  we  of  the  Clan 
Macdonald  thought  ominous,  we  had  not  this  day 
the  right  hand  in  battle  .  .  .  which  our  clan  main- 
tains we  had  enjoyed  in  all  our  battles  and  struggles 
in  behalf  of  our  Royal  family  since  the  battle  of 
Bannockburn.  .  .  /"  The  result  was  that  the  Mac- 
donalds,  who  composed  the  left  wing,  refused  to 
charge.  Thev  stood  their  ground  and  fired  on  the 
enemy ;  but  when  they  saw  the  other  clans  break  and 
give  way.  they  turned  and  tied  from  the  field.  Upon 
seeing  this,  Keppoch  exclaimed,  ••'  My  God !  have  the 
children  of  my  tribe  forsaken  me?"  and  rushing 
forward  into  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  soon  met  his 
death.  In  less  than  twenty-five  minutes  the  battle 
was  over  and  the  Prince's  army  was  entirely  routed. 

When  all  hope  of  retrieving  the  clay  was  ended, 
and  the  Highlanders  were  fleeing  for  their  lives,  the 
Prince  reluctantly  withdrew,  and  crossing  the  river 
Nairn,  rode  with  a  small  escort  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Invergarry  Castle.  ■  He  at  last  only  left  the  field 
when  to  have  remained  would  have  but  added  his 
own  destruction  to  that  of  the  many  brave  men  who 
had  already  spilled  their  heart's"  blood  in  his  cause." 

Part  of  the  army  retreated  10  Ruthven,  where  they 
waited,  apparently  in  the  expectation  that  something1 


Culloden  Monument 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


319 


further  would  be  attempted ;  but  on  receipt  of  a  mes- 
sage from  the  Prince  to  say  that  he  could  do  nothing 
more  for  the  present,  and  that  every  one  must  look  to 
his  own  safety,  they  at  once  disbanded,  the  gentlemen 
hiding  on  their  estates  or  escaping  abroad,  and  the 
others  returning  to  their  homes. 

And  now  began  those  five  months  of  hardship,  of 
exposure  and  of  repeated  hair-breadth  escapes  which 
have  thrown  a  halo  of  romance  over  Prince  Charles's 
memory,  and  of  undying  fame  over  that  of  the  de- 
voted men  and  women  who,  at  the  imminent  risk  of 
their  fortunes  and  their  lives,  undertook  loyally  the 
desperate  task  of  supplying  him  with  food  and  shel- 
ter, and  of  guiding  him  from  one  place  of  safety  to 
another. 

After  crossing  the  Nairn,  the  Prince  and  his  party 
were  at  first  guided  by  Edard  Burke,  a  Highlander, 
who  had  been  employed  in  Edinburgh  as  a  sedan- 
carrier.  Their  first  halt  was  at  Gortleg,  which  stands 
north  of  Loch  Garth,  about  two  miles  from  Loch 
Ness.  Lord  Lovat  was  there  at  the  time,  and  Mrs. 
Grant  of  Laggan  gives  a  graphic  account  of  a  little 
girl,  an  inmate  of  the  house,  of  what  took  place  on 
the  eventful  day.  Great  preparations  were  making 
to  celebrate  the  Prince's  expected  victory  by  a  royal 
feast,  and  in  the  bustle  and  confusion  this  little  maid 
was  shut  into  a  small  room  and  left  there  for  some 
hours  alone.  Suddenly  to  the  noise  and  excitement 
that  had  prevailed  there  ensued  a  deep  silence.  Un- 


320     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 

able  at  last  to  bear  the  suspense  any  longer,  she  stole 
out,  to  find  the  house  deserted ;  only  Lord  Lovat  was 
there,  "  sitting  in  his  great  chair  in  deep  thought." 
Outside  were  gathered  the  whole  household,  watching 
where  below  in  the  valley  a  small  group  of  horsemen 
could  be  seen  advancing.  All  at  once  there  arose  a 
loud  burst  of  lamentation ;  some  one  had  recognized 
the  Prince,  and  the  meaning  of  his  presence  there 
and  under  those  circumstances  was  unmistakable. 
The  women  "  began  to  tear  off  their  handkerchiefs  to 
make  bandages  for  the  wounded,  and  the  viands  pre- 
pared for  the  feast  were  seized  and  distributed  with- 
out ceremony."  The  party  then  rode  on  by  Fort 
Augustus  to  Invergarry  Castle,  then  along  the  north 
shore  of  Loch  Arkaig  to  Glenpean,  where  the  horses 
were  abandoned,  and  so  on  foot  across  a  spur  of 
rugged  hills  to  Borradale,  the  spot  where  the  Prince 
had  first  landed. 

Donald  Macleod,  a  native  of  Skye,  having  been 
sent  to  act  as  guide,  met  in  the  forest  of  Glenbeasdale 
"a  stranger,  walking  by  himself,  who,  making  up  to 
him,  asked  if  he  were  Donald  Macleod  of  Gualter- 
gill.  Donald,  instantly  recognizing  him,  notwith- 
standing his  mean  attire,  said,  '  I  am  the  same  man, 
please  your  highness,  at  your  service.' "  The  Prince 
then  confided  himself  to  his  care  in  such  terms  that, 
when  Donald  was  telling  the  story  a  year  afterwards, 
"  the  tears  were  streaming  along  his  cheeks  like  rain." 
Macleod  having  procured  a  boat  and  a  crew  of  seven 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


321 


men,  the  Prince  with  his  party,  then  consisting  of 
five  persons,  sailed  from  Borradale,  in  the  hope  of 
finding  a  French  ship  somewhere  in  the  Hebrides  or 
the  Orkneys. 

A  terrible  storm,  accompanied  by  torrents  of  rain, 
drove  them  ashore  the  next  day,  in  a  very  drenched 
and  miserable  condition,  at  Benbecula,  an  island  lying 
between  North  and  South  Uist  in  the  Western  Hebrides 
(27th  of  April).  Two  days  later  the  party  set  out  for 
Stornoway,  in  the  Island  of  Lewis,  hoping  to  procure 
a  vessel  there  to  take  them  to  the  Orkneys ;  but  it 
having  leaked  out  for  whom  the  vessel  was  wanted,  the 
people  of  Stornoway  utterly  declined  to  lend  any  sort 
of  aid ;  and  so,  after  being  very  hospitably  treated  by  a 
Mrs.  Mackenzie  at  Kildun  House,  close  by,  they  were 
obliged  to  start  back  again,  carrying  with  them  how- 
ever a  supply  of  fresh  meat,  meal,  brandy  and  sugar. 

This  time  the  voyage  was  enlivened  by  the  presence 
of  some  English  ships  of  war,  one  of  which  gave 
chase;  while  the  closeness  of  the  hue  and  cry  after 
them  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  at  Scalpa,  an  island 
off  the  coast  of  Harris,  where  they  had  been  enter- 
tained by  Donald  Campbell  on  their  way  north,  they 
found  that  their  late  host  had  already  been  obliged  to 
go  into  hiding  for  his  kindness  to  them.  After  a 
week  of  great  exposure  and  hardship,  when  the  little 
party  found  shelter  in  wretched  huts,  or,  as  in  one 
case,  were  obliged  to  spend  the  entire  night  in  the 
boat,  they  reached  Coradale,  in  South  Uist,  where 
Vol.  II.— 21 


322     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 

they  stayed  from  the  15th  of  May  to  the  5th  of 
June  in  a  forester's  cottage  belonging  to  Clanranald. 
These  three  weeks  form  the  one  oasis  in  the  Prince's 
five  months'  wanderings.  The  game  with  which  the 
island  was  stocked  at  once  supplied  their  larder  and 
provided  entertainment  for  the  Prince,  who  was  an 
excellent  shot ;  and  many  of  his  friends  were  able  to 
visit  him  in  his  retreat,  and  bring  or  send  him  various 
things  to  add  to  his  comfort. 

Donald  Macleod  in  the  meantime  was  sent  to  the 
mainland  to  try  to  get  some  money  from  John  Mur- 
ray of  Broughton,  but  returned  unsuccessful.  At 
length  a  message  from  the  wife1  of  Sir  Alexander 
Macdonald  of  SI  eat,  who  with  his  clansmen  was  in 
arms  for  the  Government,  warned  them  that  this 
period  of  respite  was  at  an  end;  troops  were  land- 
ing near  at  hand  and  their  position  was  no  longer 
safe.  The  Prince  and  his  companions  put  to  sea  once 
more  (June  5).  The  fortnight  that  followed  Avas  a 
series  of  breathless  escapes.  With  the  troops  ever 
close  upon  their  heels,  they  skirted  along  the  east 
coast  of  South  Uist,  or,  landing,  would  spend  the 
night  on  the  hillsides  or  in  the  open  fields,  with  no 
other  shelter  than  the  sails  of  their  boat.  At  Loch 
Boisdale  they  were  further  disheartened  by  the  news 

1  Lady  Margaret  Macdonald  was  one  of  the  seven  tall  daughters 
of  the  beautiful  Countess  of  Eglinton,  of  whom  it  is  told  that  to  the 
end  of  her  life,  in  her  bedroom  at  Auchans  Castle,  a  picture  of  the 
Prince  hung  so  that  it  would  be  the  first  thing  to  meet  her  eye  on 
awaking  in  the  morning.    She  died  in  1780. 


INVEKNESS-SHIKE. 


323 


that  Macdonald  of  Boisdale,  who,  although  he  had 
refused  to  go  "  out "  with  Prince  Charles  on  his  first 
landing,  had  been  most  hospitable  to  him  in  his  mis- 
fortunes, and  had  been  with  him  at  Coradale  shortly 
before,  had  been  taken  prisoner.  "  Nevertheless, 
Lady  Boisdale  sent  them  four  bottles  of  brandy  and 
contributed  every  other  comfort  in  her  power."  They 
remained  in  this  neighborhood  for  several  days,  when, 
learning  that  a  Captain  Carolina  Scott  had  landed 
close  by,  the  party  broke  up,  the  Prince  with  Captain 
O'Neil,  who  had  been  with  him  continuously  since  the 
battle  of  Culloden,  and  a  guide  starting  off  across  the 
mountains  on  foot.  a  The  Prince  called  for  the  boat- 
men, and  ordered  O'Sullivan  to  pay  every  one  of  them 
a  shilling  sterling  a  day,  besides  their  maintenance. 
He  gave  a  draught  of  sixty  pistoles  to  Donald  Mac- 
leod,  to  be  paid  by  Mr.  John  Hay  of  Restalrig  if  he 
should  happen  to  be  so  lucky  as  to  meet  with  him 
upon  the  Continent.  But  as  Donald  never  met  with 
Mr.  Hay,  the  draught  remains  yet  unpaid."  Instead 
of  a  paymaster,  poor  Macleod  met  with  imprisonment, 
being  captured  two  weeks  later. 

At  midnight  the  Prince  and  his  two  companions 
reached  a  hut  near  the  west  coast  of  the  island,  be- 
longing to  Macdonald  of  Milton,  "where  by  good 
fortune,"  writes  Captain  O'Neil,  "  we  met  with  Miss 
Flora  Macdonald,  whom  I  formerly  knew."  It  was 
the  time  of  the  year  when  it  was  the  custom  to  drive 
the  cattle  to  the  hill  pastures,  where  the  farmers 


324     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


accompanied  their  herds,  living  with  their  retainers  in 
shielings  or  huts  erected  in  the  mountains.  It  was  in 
one  of  these  that  Flora  was  staying  when  Prince 
Charles  paid  her  his  historic  visit.  O'Neil,  who  ac- 
cording to  one  account  "  was  mighty  well  pleased " 
to  be  thrown  in  Miss  Flora's  company,  having  told 
her  he  had  brought  a  friend  to  see  her,  "she,  with  some 
emotion,  asked  him  if  it  was  the  Prince ;  I  answered 
her  it  was,  and  instantly  brought  him  in."  It  was 
then  suggested  that  Miss  Flora  should  conduct  the 
Prince  to  the  Isle  of  Skye,  the  home  of  her  mother  and 
step-father,  the  latter  the  captain  of  an  independent 
company  supposed  to  be  out  in  search  of  Prince 
Charles.    She,  after  some  hesitation,  agreed  to  do  this. 

The  next  six  days  were  spent  in  making  the  neces- 
sary arrangements,  while  the  Prince  remained  con- 
cealed in  Benbecula.  On  the  night  of  the  27th  of 
June  quite  a  little  party  assembled  in  the  cottage  of 
Clanranald's  tenant  at  Rossinish,  where  the  Prince  and 
O'Neil  had  found  shelter — Flora,  Lady  Clanranald, 
her  daughter  Peggy  and  Flora's  brother,  Macdonald 
of  Milton.  They  found  the  Prince  "  assisting  in  the 
roasting  of  his  dinner,  which  consisted  of  the  heart, 
liver,  kidneys,  etc.,  of  a  bullock  or  sheep,  upon  a 
wooden  spit."  The  feast  that  followed  was  rudely 
interrupted  by  the  news  that  a  force  had  landed  and 
they  were  in  danger  of  being  surrounded.  Break- 
ing up  in  haste,  they  went  by  boat  across  Loch  Us- 
kevagh. 


INVERNESS-SHIRE.  325 

The  plan  was  for  the  Prince  to  disguise  himself  as 
a  woman,  and  Flora's  step-father  had  provided  her 
with  passports  for  herself,  a  man  servant  (the  guide 
Neil  MacEachain  *)  and  "  Betty  Burke,  a  good  spin- 
ster," who  he  said,  in  writing  to  his  wife,  Flora's 
mother,  at  Annandale  in  Skye,  might  be  of  use 
to  her  in  that  capacity.  "  O'Neil  would  gladly  have 
staid  with  the  Prince  and  shared  in  his  distresses  and 
dangers,  but  Miss  could  by  no  means  be  prevailed  upon 
to  agree  to  that  proposal."  They  accordingly  sepa- 
rated, and  O'Neil  was  captured  shortly  afterwards  in 
North  Uist.  The  Prince  now  assumed  his  disguise. 
"  The  gown  was  of  calico,  a  light-colored  quilted 
petticoat  and  a  mantle  of  dun  camlet,  made  after  the 
Irish  fashion,  with  a  cap  to  cover  his  royal  highnesses 
whole  head  and  face,  with  a  suitable  head-dress,  shoes, 
stockings,  etc." 

On  the  evening  of  June  28th  the  party,  with  four 
boatmen,  set  sail  for  Skye.  "  They  had  not  rowed 
from  the  shore  above  a  league  till  the  sea  became 
rough  and  at  last  tempestuous,  and,  to  entertain  the 

1  Neil  MacEachain,  or  Macdonald,  had  been  educated  for  the 
priesthood  in  France,  but  had  not  taken  orders.  He  was  at  this 
time  acting  as  parish  schoolmaster  and  private  tutor  in  Clanranald's 
family,  and  was  selected  as  companion  to  Flora  and  the  Prince  on 
account  of  his  knowledge  of  French.  He  eventually  escaped  to 
France  along  with  the  Prince  and  joined  the  French  army.  His 
son  rose  to  be  the  celebrated  Marshal  Macdonald  of  Napoleon's 
grand  army.  Though  the  Clanranalds  were  Catholics,  Flora  Mac- 
donald was  a  Protestant.  Her  grandfather  had  been  minister  of 
South  Uist. 


326     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 


company,  the  Prince  sang  several  songs  and  seemed  to 
be  in  good  spirits.  In  the  passage  Miss  Macdonald 
fell  asleep,  and  then  the  Prince  carefully  guarded  her 
lest  in  the  darkness  any  of  the  men  should  chance  to 
step  upon  her.  She  awaked  in  a  surprise  with  some 
little  bustle  in  the  boat,  and  wondered  what  was  the 
matter."  1 

The  party  first  attempted  to  land  at  Waternish,  but 
some  militia  appeared  and  fired  at  them ;  later  they 
got  safely  ashore  on  the  beach  north  of  Kilbride. 
Flora  went  to  Monkstat  House  hard  by,  the  residence 
of  Sir  Alexander  Macdonald,  the  chief  of  the  Skye 
Macdonalds,  then  out  with  his  clan  for  the  Govern- 
ment, leaving  the  Prince  "sitting  on  her  trunk  on  the 
beach."  Lady  Margaret  Macdonald  was  entertaining 
one  of  the  officers  of  the  militia  and  Flora  had  to 
parry  some  close  questioning.  She  contrived  how- 
ever to  make  her  errand  known  to  the  inmates, 
when  "  Lady  Margaret  pressed  Miss  very  much,  in 
presence  of  the  officer,  to  stay.  .  .  .  But  Miss  desired 
to  be  excused  at  that  time,  because  she  wanted  to  see 
her  mother  and  to  be  at  home  in  these  troublesome 
times."  In  short,  having  between  them  thoroughly 
befooled  the  Lieutenant  and  dispatched  their  clans- 
man, Macdonald  of  Kingsburgh,  to  the  Prince  with 
food,  Miss  Flora  set  forth  with  a  small  party  to 
Kingsburgh  House,  where  both  she  and  the  Prince 
passed  the  night.    There  is  a  graphic  account  of 

1  The  Lyon  in  Mourning. 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


327 


Kingsburgh  arousing  his  wife  out  of  bed  to  prepare 
supper  for  the  friends  he  had  brought,  the  little 
daughter  running  in  to  say,  "  O,  mother,  my  father 
has  brought  in  a  very  odd,  muckle,  ill-shaken-up  wife 
as  ever  I  saw  !  I  never  saw  the  like  of  her,  and  he 
has  gone  into  the  hall  with  her!"  Mrs.  Macdonald, 
obliged  to  go  to  the  hall  for  her  keys,  was  equally 
struck  with  the  singular  appearance  of  the  guest ;  nor 
was  she  reassured  by  what  followed,  for  the  stranger 
immediately  "arose,  went  forward  and  saluted  Mrs. 
Macdonald,  who,  feeling  a  long,  stiff  beard,  trembled 
to  think  that  this  behoved  to  be  some  distressed  noble- 
man or  gentleman  in  disguise,  for  she  never  dreamed 
it  to  be  the  Prince."  When  the  poor  woman  learned 
the  truth,  she  burst  out  in  despair  that  they  would 
surely  be  ruined.  "  Hout,  good  wife,"  was  the  hus- 
band's reply,  "  we  will  die  but  once ;  and  if  we  are 
hanged  for  this,  I  am  sure  we  die  in  a  good  cause." 

The  next  morning  the  lady  begged  Flora  to  get  her 
a  lock  of  the  Prince's  hair,  to  which  the  other  objected 
that  he  was  not  yet  out  of  bed .  The  Prince  hearing 
them  before  the  door  and  learning  what  was  wanted, 
begged  them  to  enter,  wThen  "  laying  his  arms  about 
her  waist,  and  his  head  upon  her  lap,  he  desired  her 
to  cut  out  the  lock  with  her  own  hands,  in  token  of 
future  and  more  substantial  favours." 

Kingsburgh  had  been  much  concerned  at  the  Prince's 
uncouth  appearance  in  his  female  attire,  and  at  his 
utter  failure  on  the  preceding  day  to  act  the  part  of  a 


328     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

woman,  when  they  met  people  on  the  road.  "  Your 
enemies,"  said  he,  "  call  you  a  pretender ;  but  if  you 
be,  I  can  tell  you  you  are  the  worst  at  your  trade  I 
ever  saw."  Accordingly  when  they  had  started  for 
Portree  "Betty  Burke"  disappeared,  the  Prince 
putting  on  in  a  wood  by  the  roadside  a  Highland 
dress  provided  by  Kingsburgh.  At  Portree  Flora 
parted  from  her  Prince.  "  He  then  saluted  her,  and 
expressed  himself  in  these  or  the  like  words,  (  Por 
all  that  has  happened,  I  hope,  madam,  we  shall  meet 
in  St.  James's  yet.'  "  But  neither  there  nor  anywhere 
else  did  they  ever  meet  again.  After  parting  from 
her  the  Prince,  on  the  way  to  the  boat  that  was  to 
take  him  to  Raasa  Island,  had  taken  a  piece  of  sugar, 
his  whole  stock,  from  his  pocket,  saying,  "  Pray,  Mac- 
donald,  give  this  piece  of  sugar  to  our  lady,  for  I  am 
afraid  she  will  get  no  sugar  where  she  is  going,"  and 
later  he  commanded  him  to  "  Tell  nobody,  no,  not  our 
lady,  which  way  I  am  gone,  for  it  is  right  that  my 
course  should  not  be  known." 

Shortly  afterwards  the  Kingsburghs  and  Flora  were 
taken  prisoner.  The  last,  after  spending  some  months 
on  a  ship-of-war  (where  for  a  time  she  had  O'Neil  for 
a  fellow  prisoner),  was  carried  to  London,  where  she 
was  kept  in  confinement  till  the  passing  of  the  Act  of 
Indemnity  (July,  1747).  Three  years  after  her  re- 
lease she  married  Kingsburgh's  son  Alexander.  She 
and  her  husband  emigrated  to  North  Carolina,  but  on 
the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution  took  the  Royal 


INVEENESS-SHIEE. 


329 


side,  so  that  at  the  close  of  the  war  it  was  more  agree- 
able to  them  to  return  to  Skye.  Flora  Macdonald 
died  in  1790  and  was  buried  in  Kilinuir,  wrapped  for 
a  shroud  in  one  of  the  sheets  in  which  the  Prince  had 
slept  the  night  he  spent  at  Kingsburgh  House,  and 
which  she  had  constantly  kept  by  her  throughout  all 
her  subsequent  journey  in  gs. 

In  London  after  her  release  she  was  much  visited 
and  feted  as  a  heroine,  and  among  other  visitors  she 
received  the  Prince  of  Wales,  father  of  George  III. 
Her  portrait  was  painted  by  fashionable  artists,  and, 
according  to  Chambers,  she  received  such  homage  as 
would  have  turned  the  heads  of  ninety-nine  out  of 
a  hundred  women,  but  on  her  mind  it  produced  no 
effect  but  surprise. 

The  whole  incident  of  Flora  Macdonald  and  Prince 
Charles  Edward  is  one  of  the  most  charming  idyls  of 
the  romantic  adventure.  No  breath  of  scandal  has 
ever  sullied  her  fair  name,  which,  as  Dr.  Johnson  says, 
"is  one  that  will  be  mentioned  in  history,  and,  if 
courage  and  fidelity  be  virtues,  mentioned  with  honor." 

From  Raasa  the  Prince  returned  to  Skye,  where  he 
was  cared  for  by  the  Macleods  and  Mackinnons. 
Crossing  on  July  4  to  the  mainland,  he  first  landed  at 
Mallaig,  now  the  terminus  of  a  railway  opened  in 
April,  1901.  He  then  coasted  along  Loch  Nevis  and 
was  actually  chased  by  the  militia,  but  escaped  by 
springing  ashore  and  running  up  into  the  hills. 

The  coast  now  fairly  bristled  with  ships-of-war,  the 


330     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Peninsula  comprising  Knoidart,  Morar,  Arisaig  and 
Moidart — in  which  it  was  known  the  Prince  was  lurk- 
ing— was  also  surrounded  on  the  land  side  by  a  contin- 
uous chain  of  soldiers,  and  for  several  days  the  party, 
which  now  consisted  of  Macdonald  of  Glenaladale,  two 
other  Macdonalds  and  Donald  Cameron  of  Glenpean, 
were  in  constant  danger  of  detection.  Frequently  they 
were  within  sight  and  hearing  of  the  Government 
camps.  One  day,  as  they  lay  concealed  on  the  brow  of 
a  hill  at  the  head  of  Loch  Quoich,  they  became  aware 
that  a  search  party  was  marching  up  the  other  side  of 
the  same  hill ;  having  nowhere  to  go,  they  could  only 
lie  still  and  take  their  chances.  In  this  as  in  so  many 
other  cases  the  Prince's  wonderful  luck  attended  him, 
and  they  remained  undiscovered.  During  this  time 
they  suffered  much  for  lack  of  provisions,  a  little 
butter  or  cheese,  with  raw  oatmeal  and  water  from  the 
brook,  being  light  fare  for  five  healthy  men,  who 
walked  their  ten  or  twenty  miles  a  day  over  the 
roughest  kind  of  country  and  slept  in  the  open  air 
without  shelter  or  covering  of  any  kind.  They  made 
their  way  at  last  through  the  line  of  camps  and  sen- 
tries that  had  been  drawn  around  the  entire  district 
by  creeping  on  all  fours  along  the  channel  of  a  moun- 
tain torrent,  so  close  to  two  of  the  Government  posts 
that  they  could  hear  the  sentries  on  both  sides  of 
them.  On  July  22  they  reached  Glenshiel  in  Eoss- 
shire.  From  there  they  started  for  Glenmoriston,  but 
before  they  had  gone  very  far  Glenaladale  was  dis- 


INVEKNESS-SHIKE. 


331 


mayed  to  find  that  he  had  left  the  purse  containing 
the  Prince's  entire  stock  of  money  at  their  last  halt- 
ing place.  Notwithstanding  Charles's  entreaties  that 
they  should  keep  on,  he  insisted  upon  going  back  to 
recover  it,  taking  one  of  the  party  with  him.  While 
the  others,  who  had  withdrawn  a  little  to  one  side, 
awaited  their  return,  they  were  suddenly  amazed  to 
see  an  officer  and  a  party  of  soldiers  advancing  along 
the  path  they  had  but  just  quitted.  They  watched 
them  pass  unsuspectingly  by,  and  after  a  time  the 
others  returned  by  a  different  road,  thus  missing  the 
soldiers,  and  bringing  back  the  purse  with  them. 
After  this  extraordinary  escape  the  Prince  is  said  to 
have  declared  that  he  "  scarcely  believed  he  could  be 
taken,  though  he  had  a  mind  to  it." 

Shortly  after  this  the  Prince  was  taken  under  the 
protection  of  the  seven  men  of  Glenmoriston,  a  little 
company  of  fugitives  who  had  served  in  the  Highland 
army  and  were  now  banded  together  to  resist  the  op- 
pressions of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  For  four 
days  the  party  was  hospitably  entertained  in  the 
"  robbers'  cave,"  a  secure  and  comfortable  retreat  in 
the  Braes  of  Glenmoriston.  Then,  finding  it  expedi- 
ent to  remove,  they  travelled  slowly  northward,  the 
idea  being  to  get  to  Poolewe,  at  the  head  of  Loch 
Ewe  in  Ross-shire,  in  the  hope  of  finding  a  French 
vessel  there  which  would  take  the  Prince  away.  At 
a  point  north  of  Glen  Cannich  they  learned,  however, 
that  such  a  vessel  had  come  and  gone,  and  that  two 


332     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  ASD  ROMANTIC. 


French  officers  were  even  then  looking  for  the  Prince 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Loch  Arkaig.  They  there- 
fore once  more  turned  southward. 

Two  weeks  were  now  spent  skulking  about  in  the 
country  north  of  Loch  Arkaig,  the  party  enduring 
every  possible  hardship,  danger  and  fatigue,  the 
Prince,  as  usual,  maintaining  throughout  the  most 
uncomplaining  cheerfulness.  The  Rev.  John  Cam- 
eron, a  Presbyterian  minister  and  a  clansman  of 
LochieFs,  who,  along  with  Dr.  Archibald  Cameron, 
LochiePs  brother,  found  him  at  this  time,  thus  de- 
scribes his  appearance :  "  He  was  barefooted,  had  an 
old  black  kilt  coat  on,  philibeg  and  waistcoat,  a  dirty 
shirt  and  a  long  red  beard,  a  gun  in  his  hand,  a 
pistol  and  dirk  by  his  side.  He  was  very  cheerful 
and  in  good  health,  and  in  my  opinion  fatter  than 
when  he  was  at  Inverness. " 

The  two  Camerons  brought  word  that  Lochiel  and 
Cluny  Macpherson  had  been  living  for  the  past  three 
months,  in  comparative  security  and  comfort,  on  the 
Macpherson  lands  in  Badenoch,  and  offered  to  take 
the  Prince  to  them.  He  accordingly  reached  Bade- 
noch <:»n  August  30,  and  a  few  days  later  the  party 
removed  to  Cluny's  "Cage,"  in  the  mountains  of  Ben- 
alder,  where  they  found  Cluny  and  Lochiel.  This 
remarkable  hiding-place  is  thus  described  in  a  con- 
temporary narrative  by  a  brother  of  Cluny's : 

"  A  very  comical  habitation  made  out  for  him  [the 
Prince]  by  Cluny,  called  the  Cage.    It  was  really  a 


TNVEENESS-SHIKE. 


333 


curiosity  and  can  scarcely  be  described  to  perfection. 
JTwas  situate  in  the  face  of  a  very  rough,  high,  rockie 
mountain  .  .  .  full  of  great  stones  and  crevices,  and 
some  scattered  wood  interspersed.  The  habitation 
called  the  Cage,  in  the  face  of  that  mountain,  was 
within  a  small,  thick  bush  of  wood.  There  were  first 
some  rows  of  trees  laid  down  in  order  to  level  a  floor 
for  the  habitation,  and  as  the  place  was  steep,  this 
rais'd  the  lower  side  to  equall  height  with  the  other, 
and  these  trees  in  the  way  of  jests  [joists]  or  planks 
were  entirely  well  levelled  with  earth  and  gravel. 
There  were  betwixt  the  trees,  growing  naturally  on 
their  own  roots,  some  stakes  fixed  in  the  earth,  which, 
with  the  trees,  were  interwoven  with  rope  made  of 
heath  and  birch  twigs  all  to  the  top  of  the  Cage,  it 
being  of  a  round,  or  rather  oval  shape,  and  the  whole 
thatched  and  covered  with  foge  [moss].  This  whole 
fabrick  hung,  as  it  were,  by  a  large  tree,  which  re- 
clined from  the  one  end  all  along  the  roof  to  the 
other,  and  which  gave  it  the  name  of  the  Cage ;  and 
by  chance  there  happened  to  be  two  stones  at  a  small 
distance  from  other  in  the  side  next  the  precipice 
resembling  the  pillars  of  a  bosom  chimney,  and  here 
was  the  fire  placed.  The  smock  had  its  vent  out  there, 
all  along  a  very  stonny  plat  of  the  rock,  which  and 
the  smock  were  all  together  so  much  of  a  colour  that 
any  one  could  make  no  difference  in  the  clearest  day, 
the  smok  and  stones  by  and  through  which  it  pass'd 
being  of  such  true  and  real  resemblance.    The  Cage 


334     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

was  no  larger  than  to  contain  six  or  seven  persons, 
four  of  which  number  were  frequently  employed  in 
playing  at  cards,  one  idle  looking  on,  one  becking, 
and  another  firing  bread  and  cooking." 

This  Cage,  which  overlooked  the  waters  of  Loch 
Ericht,  was  never  discovered  by  the  enemy,  though 
there  were  Government  garrisons  within  a  few  miles 
of  it,1 

In  this  retreat  they  stayed  from  September  5  till 
September  13,  when  word  coming  of  the  arrival  of 
two  French  ships  in  Lochnanuagh,  off  Borradale, 
they  started  for  the  coast.  The  journey  took  nearly 
a  week,  travelling  by  night  and  hiding  throughout 
the  day.  Finally,  on  September  19,  the  Prince  safely 
embarked,  and  with  him  a  large  number  of  gentlemen 
and  others  who  had  been  skulking  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  who  took  this  opportunity  to  get  out  of  the 
country. 

In  the  early  morning  of  the  20th  the  ship  sailed, 
"and  escaping  all  the  Government's  warships,  and 
being  in  her  way  happily  favoured  by  a  fog,  he 
arrived  safely  in  France ;  an  unparalleled  instance, 
upon  a  review  of  all  the  circumstances  of  his  escape, 
of  a  very  particular  Providence  interesting  itself  in 
his  behalf.  For  what  wise  end  Heaven  has  thus  dis- 
apointed  and  yet  preserved  this  noble  prince  .  .  . 
time  only  can  tell ;  yet  something  very  remarkable 

1  It  is  to  this  Cage  that  Stevenson,  in  his  romance,  Kidnapped, 
brings  David  Balfour  when  flying  from  Appin. 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


335 


still  seems  waiting  him,  and  this  poor  country  also. 
May  God  grant  a  happy  issue  !  "  1 

How  far  this  pious  wish  was  from  fulfillment  those 
who  are  familiar  with  the  Prince's  subsequent  career 
well  know;  but  with  that  melancholy  history  we 
need  not  here  concern  ourselves.  The  real  point  of 
interest  is  the  astonishing  fact  of  his  escape,  which, 
while  it  in  some  instances  seemed  the  result  of  an 
almost  miraculous  chain  of  incidents,  was  in  the  main 
due  to  the  unswerving  faithfulness  and  devotion  of 
the  Highlanders.  "  Hundreds,  many  of  whom  were 
in  the  humblest  walks  of  life,  had  been  entrusted  with 
his  secret,  or  had  become  aware  of  it.  .  .  .  Thirty 
thousand  pounds  had  been  offered  in  vain  for  the  life 
of  one  human  being,  in  a  country  where  the  sum 
would  have  purchased  a  princely  estate."  And  this 
loyalty  of  the  Highlanders  is  the  more  praiseworthy 
when  it  is  considered  what  hardships  and  suffering 
they  were  called  upon  to  endure  for  the  sake  of  the 
lost  cause. 

Immediately  after  the  battle  of  Culloden  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland  instituted  the  most  rigorous  measures 
for  stamping  out  the  embers  of  the  fire  of  rebellion. 
The  Highlanders  had  already  been  given  a  foretaste 
as  to  the  probable  nature  of  these  measures  in  the  un- 
warrantable cruelties  practiced  on  the  field  after  the 
battle  and  in  the  pursuit.  Such  prisoners  as  were 
made  were  treated  with  extreme  cruelty,  while  many 

1  Lockhart  Papers. 


336     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC 

of  the  wounded  gathered  from  the  field  of  battle  and 
from  the  neighboring  houses,  woods  and  fields,  where 
they  had  taken  refuge,  were  ranged  up  and  shot. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  is  not  wonderful  that 
the  Highlanders  failed  to  respond  to  the  invitation  of 
the  Government  to  throw  themselves  upon  its  mercy 
by  handing  in  their  arms  and  pledging  themselves  to 
remain  quiet  for  the  future.  All  who  could  do  so 
preferred  to  go  into  hiding  or  to  flee  the  country. 
This  last  was  however  extremely  difficult,  owing  to 
the  close  watch  set  upon  the  coasts  and  the  passes  into 
the  Lowlands. 

Among  the  leaders,  the  Duke  of  Perth,  who  died 
on  the  voyage  to  France,  Lochiel,  Lord  George  Mur- 
ray. Lord  John  Drummond  and  Lord  Elcho,  all 
effected  their  escape,  while  Lord  Lovat,  the  Earls  of 
Kilmarnock  and  Balmerino,  and  a  host  of  gentlemen 
and  others  whose  comparative  obscurity  did  not  serve 
to  protect  them,  were  apprehended  and  put  to  death. 
Lord  Cromarty  was  pardoned  and  the  Marquis  of 
Tullibardine  died  in  prison. 

"  When  news  of  the  ships  being  arrived  reached 
him,  Cluny  convoyed  him  to  them  with  joy,  happy  in 
having  so  safely  plac'd  so  valuable  a  charge ;  then 
returned  with  contentment,  alone  to  commence  his 
pilgrimage,  which  continued  for  nine  years  more." 

One  week  after  Prince  Charles  had  left  Borradale 
on  his  adventurous  wanderings  in  the  Hebrides  two 
French  ships  arrived  in  the  bay  bringing  a  large 


INVERNESS-SHIRE. 


337 


quantity  of  treasure,  which,  had  it  come  a  month 
sooner,  might  have  altered  the  whole  course  of  the 
enterprise.  In  spite  of  an  attack  by  three  English 
-ships,  the  French  crew  succeeded  in  landing  forty 
thousand  louis  d'ors,  which  was  at  once  taken  posses- 
sion of  by  the  Jacobite  leaders  assembled  at  Borra- 
dale.  The  money  was  removed  to  the  head  of  Loch 
Arkaig,  in  LochieFs  country ;  some  was  taken  for 
current  expenses,  but  the  bulk  was  secretly  buried  in 
a  spot  known  only  to  a  few  trusted  leaders.1 

When  the  Prince  sailed  to  France,  Cluny  Mac- 
pherson  was  left  in  Scotland  to  look  after  this  treas- 
ure, and  well  did  he  fulfill  his  vigil.  After  seeing  the 
Prince  and  his  friends  sail  away,  he  returned  to  hiding 
in  his  own  country  of  Badenoch.  The  most  active 
means  were  taken  to  apprehend  him.  A  reward  of 
£1000  was  offered  for  information  as  to  his  where- 
abouts, and  large  bodies  of  soldiers  remained  in  the 
district  for  years  searching  for  this  Highland  chief — 
all  to  no  avail  however,  for  the  loyal  and  devoted 
Macphersons  kept  him  informed  of  every  movement 
of  his  enemies,  and  the  friendly  glens  and  mountains 
of  his  native  Badenoch  served  at  once  to  shield  him 
and  to  baffle  his  pursuers. 

The  district  still  teems  with  stories  of  his  hair- 

1  This  is  the  treasure  which  is  the  supposed  objective  of  the  vil- 
lainy of  James  More  in  Stevenson's  romance  of  David  Balfour. 
It  is  also  the  theme  of  much  writing  in  Mr.  Andrew  Lang's  book, 
Pickle  the  Spy. 

Vol.  II.— 22 


338     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  EOM ANTIC. 

breadth  escapes  and  the  devotion  of  his  clansmen.  In 
1 755  his  Prince  summoned  him  to  France,  but  whether 
he  took  the  hidden  treasure  with  him  or  not  is  not  now 
certainly  known.  He  lived  in  France  for  nine  years 
longer,  supplied  with  funds  by  the  devotion  of  his 
clansmen,  who  were  content  to  pay  double  rents — one 
going  to  the  Government,  as  proprietors  of  the  for- 
feited Cluny  estates,  and  the  other  to  France  to  main- 
tain their  lawful  chief.  Cluny  died  at  Dunkirk 
in  1764,  and  some  time  afterwards  the  property  was 
restored  to  the  family,  in  whose  possession  it  still 
remains. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


PERTH. 

South  of  Badenoch,  across  the  Grampians,  lies  the 
wild  and  picturesque  district  of  Atholl,  one  of  the 
ancient  Pictish  and  Celtic  divisions  of  the  country. 
The  word  is  a  corruption  of  Ath-foitle,  the  Ford  of 
Fotla.  According  to  the  Pictish  Chronicles,  a  work 
which  has  come  down  to  us  in  Latin  and  Irish  Gaelic, 
written  in  the  tenth  century,  but  compiled  from  earlier 
sources,  Fotla  was  one  of  the  seven  sons  of  Cruidne, 
the  son  of  Cinge,  a  Pictish  King  or  hero. 

In  historic  times  the  Earldom  of  Atholl  was  ever 
an  appanage  of  royal  blood.  The  first  Earl  in  history 
was  Murdac,  a  son  or  nephew  of  Donald  Bane ;  but 
there  are  signs  of  an  earlier  Atholl  family  even  then. 
The  last  of  the  purely  Celtic  Earls  was  Henry,  who 
died  in  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The 
title  passed  by  heiresses  to  a  family  known  as  De 
Strathbogy,  who  were  closely  connected  with  the 
Corny ns.  John  de  Strathbogy,  the  tenth  Earl,  sided 
with  Bruce,  was  captured  by  Edward  and  was  hanged 
in  London.  His  mother  being,  like  King  Edward,  a 
grandchild  of  King  John,  that  royal  humorist  caused 

339 


340     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


him  to  be  hanged  on  a  gibbet  thirty  feet  higher  than 
his  fellow-sufferers. 

The  eleventh  Earl  eventually  sided  with  Balliol 
and  married  a  daughter  of  the  Red  Corny n,  who  was 
a  very  great  heiress  both  in  Scotland  and  in  England. 
His  fealty  was  not  consistent.  Sometimes  he  was  on 
the  Scots  side,  sometimes  on  the  English,  and  his 
Scots  and  English  estates  were  forfeited  according  to 
the  side  he  embraced  for  the  time.  Finally  he  sided 
with  King  Edward  III.,  and  leading  an  English 
army  into  Aberdeenshire,  he  was  surprised  and  killed 
by  the  Scots  in  the  battle  of  Kilblain  in  1335.  His 
son  became  an  Englishman,  and  dying  without  male 
heirs,  the  proud  house  of  Strathbogie  ceased  to  exist, 
and  his  line  soon  died  out. 

The  Earldom  of  Atholl  was  then  given  by  Bruce  to 
a  son  of  his  faithful  friend  Sir  2siel  Campbell,  but 
this  Campbell  Earl  was  killed  at  Halidon  Hill  and 
left  no  heirs.  It  was  then  gifted  to  the  Earl  of 
Douglas,  but  he  resigned  it  by  some  bargain  to  the 
High  Steward,  afterwards  King,  and  thus  it  came 
back  to  the  Crown.  Robert  II.  made  AYalter  Stewart, 
his  second  son  by  Queen  Euphemia,  Earl  of  Atholl, 
and  this  Earl,  with  this  grandson  and  heir,  was  exe- 
cuted in  1437  for  the  murder  of  James  L  After 
James's  death  his  widow,  Queen  Joan,  took  as  her 
second  husband  Sir  James  Stewart,  whose  father  (a 
great-grandson  of  Wallace's  companion,  Sir  John 
Stewart,  killed  at  Falkirk)  had  married  the  heiress  of 


PERTH. 


341 


Lorn.  It  was  their  third  son,  known  as  the  Black 
Knight  of  Lorn,  who  married  the  Queen.  To  this 
James  Stewart  and  Queen  Joan  was  born  a  son,  John, 
to  whom  his  step-brother,  James  II.,  gave  the  Earl- 
dom of  Atholl,  and  for  five  generations  son  suc- 
ceeded to  father  until  the  fifth  John  Stewart  (they 
were  all  Johns)  died  without  a  son,  and  for  a  brief 
period  the  Earldom  was  granted  to  a  Stewart  cousin ; 
but  again  succession  failed.  The  eldest  daughter  of 
the  fifth  Stewart  Earl  had  married  the  second  Earl 
of  Tullibardine,  a  Murray.  He  was  the  descendant 
of  a  certain  William  de  Moravia,  who,  by  marrying 
the  daughter  of  the  Seneschal  of  Strathearn  about 
1282,  obtained  the  lands  of  Tullibardine  near  Dun- 
blane. To  their  son  John  Murray  Charles  I.  in  1628 
gave  the  Earldom,  as  "  nearest  and  lawful  heir  of  the 
late  John,  Earl  of  Atholl,  brother  of  King  James 
II."  Thus  through  the  Stewarts  the  ancient  Earldom 
passed  to  the  house  of  Murray,  or,  as  it  is  now  named, 
Stewart-Murray.  John,  the  second  Murray  Earl, 
married  Lady  Sophia  Stanley,  daughter  of  the  seventh 
Earl  of  Derby — a  marriage  which  subsequently 
brought  much  dignity  to  his  grandson  and  profit  to 
the  family.  The  second  Murray  Earl  was  raised  to 
the  Marquisitt,  and  his  son  in  1703  was  created  Duke 
of  Atholl  and  Marquis  of  Tullibardine, 

This  first  Duke  had  a  large  family,  four  of  whom 
made  a  considerable  mark  in  Scottish  history.  Of 
the  eldest,  who  was  killed  when  young  in  Marlbor- 


342     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

ough's  wars,  we  hear  little.  The  second  son,  William, 
who  on  his  brother's  death  became  Marquis  of  Tulli- 
bardine,  was  a  fervent  Jacobite ;  he  was  out  in  the 
'15  and  again  in  the  Rising  of  1719,  which  ended  in 
the  battle  of  Glenshiel.  After  this  he  retired  to 
France,  where  he  remained  for  twenty-six  years.  His 
father,  who  desired  to  retain  the  Dukedom  in  the 
family,  obtained  a  special  Act  of  Parliament  to  cut 
out  this  (surviving)  eldest  son  from  the  succession, 
which  he  got  settled  on  James,  the  next  brother,  who 
duly  succeeded  as  second  Duke.  It  was  this  William, 
Marquis  of  Tullibardine,  the  dispossessed  heir,  who 
came  over  with  Prince  Charlie  in  1745,  who  raised 
the  standard  at  Glenfinnan  and  who  was  afterwards 
captured  and  died  in  prison.  It  is  a  sign  of  the 
strength  of  the  instinct  of  hereditary  right  in  Scot- 
land that  although  it  may  be  believed  that  Atholl  was 
no  more  or  less  Jacobite  than  any  other  place  north 
of  the  Tay,  as  soon  as  the  Marquis  of  Tullibardine 
approached  in  1745  the  whole  district  welcomed  him 
as  the  rightful  Duke.  His  younger  brother,  the 
"  legal "  Duke  James,  who  was  on  King  George's 
side,  could  hardly  raise  a  man  and  fled  to  England, 
while  Atholl,  in  obedience  to  the  Marquis,  whom  of 
course  the  Jacobites  always  called  the  Duke,  declared 
for  Prince  Charles. 

The  next  son,  Lord  George  Murray,  had  as  a  boy 
held  a  commission  in  the  British  army,  but  had  de- 
serted and  joined  the  Chevalier  in  1715.    He  was 


PERTH. 


343 


"out"  again  in  the  affair  of  Glenshiel  in  1719  and 
for  some  years  had  lived  abroad ;  then  he  was  per- 
mitted to  return  home  and  had  lived  quietly  at  Tulli- 
bardine,  near  Dunblane.  He  too  joined  Prince 
Charles,  became  his  commander-in-chief,  and  was  the 
best  soldier  in  the  Jacobite  army.  It  was  said  of 
him  by  one  of  his  officers  that  if  the  Prince  had  only 
gone  to  sleep  and  left  affairs  with  Lord  George  he 
would  have  wakened  up  in  London.  Like  Lochiel 
and  Lord  Pitsligo,  he  went  out  purely  as  a  matter  of 
couscience  and  duty.  He  had  everything  to  lose, 
nothing  to  gain.  His  eldest  brother  William  was  an 
old  man  and  unmarried.  The  Duke  had  no  sons  and 
Lord  George  was  heir  to  the  Dukedom.  All  this  he 
gave  up  for  the  Stuart  cause,  yet  the  Prince  never 
liked  or  trusted  him,  and  when  all  was  over,  and  both 
had  escaped  to  France,  Charles  behaved  to  Lord 
George  with  the  greatest  ingratitude.  A  fourth 
brother  was  Lord  John  Murray  of  the  Black  Watch, 
and  he  adhered  throughout  to  the  Government. 

Ten  years  before  the  coming  of  Prince  Charles  a 
great  access  of  dignity  came  to  the  family.  The  sov- 
ereignty of  the  Isle  of  Man  had  belonged  to  the  Earls 
of  Derby.1  In  1735  the  tenth  Earl  of  Derby  died 
childless  and  the  Earldom  went  to  the  heir  male,  a 
very  distant  relation.  The  sovereignty  of  Man  how- 
ever, being  quasi-royal,  went  to  the  Duke  of  Atholl, 
the  "  heir-general,"  as  grandson  of  the  eldest  daughter 

1  See  Scott's  Peveril  of  the  Peak  and  Notes. 


344     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

of  the  seventh  Earl  of  Derby.  The  Atholl  family 
held  the  title  of  "  Kings  in  Man  "  for  many  years,  and 
though  the  "  sovereignty  "  was  purchased  from  them 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  it  was  not  until  the  year 
1829  that  they  parted  with  the  last  of  their  many 
rights,  to  the  Government  for  a  sum  of  nearly  half  a 
million  sterling. 

Lord  George  died  in  exile  before  his  brother,  Duke 
James,  and  his  eldest  son,  who  was  a  boy  at  Eton  in 
the  '45,  duly  succeeded  on  his  uncle's  death  as  third 
Duke.  He  had  previously  married  his  cousin,  the 
heiress  and  the  only  surviving  child  of  Duke  James, 
and  this  united  the  title  and  the  estates.  From  him 
the  present  Duke  is  descended  in  the  direct  line,  and 
he  of  all  the  Scots  nobility  of  the  present  day  seems 
most  to  embody  the  virtues  of  the  past.  The  Duke 
lives  in  his  Castle,  not  merely  comes  to  it  for  sport. 
He  speaks  Gaelic  with  his  people,  worships  with  them 
in  the  parish  church,  disciplines  his  retainers  as  a 
company  of  Atholl  Highlanders,  is  the  leader  of  local 
enterprise,  and  seems  to  realize  to-day  a  kindly  sys- 
tem, which  strongly  resembles  patriarchal  feudalism. 

Blair  Atholl— "the  field  of  Atholl"— lies  in  the 
middle  of  the  old  Earldom,  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
River  Garry.  Hard  by  the  village  is  Blair  Castle, 
the  seat  of  the  Duke.  The  oldest  part  of  the  Castle 
is  Cumming's  (or  Conryn's)  Tower,  which  it  is  sup- 
posed was  erected  in  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth 
century  by  a  Comyn,  left  in  charge  while  the  last 


PERTH. 


345 


Celtic  Earl  was  away  at  the  Crusades.  There  is  but 
little  record  of  this  noble  yet  simple  building,  which  is 
full  of  historical  associations  of  every  kiud. 

Hither  came  Montrose  in  August  of  1644,  having 
travelled  up  through  Scotland  disguised  as  a  groom, 
to  carry  out  his  scheme  of  raising  a  Highland  army 
for  King  Charles.  From  Blair  Castle  the  Fiery  Cross 
was  sent  forth,  and  the  Marquis  had  presently  assem- 
bled a  force  of  three  thousand  fighting  men.  Adopting 
the  Highland  dress,  he  placed  himself  at  their  head, 
and  marched  on  foot  to  Tippermuir,  near  Perth,  where 
he  obtained  the  first  victor}7  of  his  brilliant  campaign. 

Forty-five  years  later  a  scion  of  the  same  house, 
John  Graham  of  Claverhouse,  Viscount  Dundee,  left 
Edinburgh  to  follow  "  wherever  the  spirit  of  Montrose 
should  conduct  him."  Blair  Castle  was  then  in  the 
singular  position  of  being  garrisoned  and  held  for 
"King  James"  by  the  factor  of  the  estate,  backed  by 
many  of  the  clansmen,  against  the  Marquis  of  Atholl, 
who  had  declared  for  King  William.  Its  importance 
as  commanding  the  Pass  of  Killiecrankie,  three  miles 
below  Blair  Atholl,  the  key  to  the  Central  Highlands, 
determined  General  Mackay  to  attempt  to  reach  and 
reduce  it  before  Dundee  should  get  there  with  rein- 
forcements. On  arriving  at  Dunkeld  he  found  that 
Dundee  had  outstripped  him,  and  with  a  force  much 
inferior  to  his  own  was  preparing  to  defend  the  Castle. 

It  was  in  the  early  morning  of  Saturday,  July  27, 
1689,  that  the  mixed  army  of  Lowland  Scots,  Dutch 


346     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

and  English,  commanded  by  Mackay,  entered  the 
celebrated  defile  that  separated  the  two  armies.  "  It 
was  deemed  the  most  perilous  of  all  those  dark  ravines 
through  which  the  marauders  of  the  hills  were  wont 
to  sally  forth.  .  .  .  The  only  path1  was  narrow  and 
rugged ;  a  horse  could  with  difficulty  be  led  up  ;  two 
men  could  hardly  walk  abreast,  and  in  some  places  a 
traveller  had  great  need  of  a  steady  eye  and  foot."  2 

Through  the  ravine,  which  is  a  mile  and  a  half  long, 
broils  the  River  Garry,  and  above  it  rises  the  solemn 
height  of  Ben  Vrackie.  "To  fresh  recruits  and  old 
soldiers  trained  in  the  Low  Country  wars  it  cannot 
have  been  encouraging  to  find  themselves  marching  in 
narrow  procession  through  the  grim  gorge  of  the  pass. 
Above  were  piles  of  rock,  where  enemies  might  be 
hidden  in  multitudes,  and  at  their  feet  swept  the  terri- 
ble torrent.  Where  it  struck  or  tumbled  over  rocks 
it  raged  in  dingy-white — elsewhere  between  walls  of 
rock  it  shot  deep  and  smooth  and  black,  with  restless 
traces  of  rapidity  on  its  surface ;  but  all  through,  to  him 
who  by  force  or  accident  lost  footing  on  the  narrow 
edge,  there  was  no  hope  of  life."  3 

Through  the  gorge  General  Mackay  led  his  troops 
unopposed,  and  then  placed  them  as  advantageously  as 
the  nature  of  the  ground  beyond  the  pass  would  per- 
mit, while  on  the  north  Dundee  could  be  seen  halting 

1  General  Wade's  great  Highland  road,  constructed  in  1732,  now 
runs  above  the  left  bank  of  the  river. 

2  Macaulay.  3  Histoi^y  of  Scotland,  Hill  Burton. 


Pass  of  Killiecrankie 


PEETH.  347 

his  men  on  the  brow  of  a  hill  that  rose  before  them  in 
steady  ascent.  Two  hours  were  passed  in  inactivity 
while  Dundee  waited  for  the  sun  to  pass  around  to  the 
west  and  out  of  the  eyes  of  his  men,  then  he  ordered 
a  charge.  The  Highlanders  advanced  in  their  usual 
fashion — divested  of  their  plaids,  with  bodies  bent 
forward  and  nearly  covered  by  their  targets.  On 
coming  close  to  the  enemy's  front  ranks  they  fired 
and  threw  away  their  pieces,  then  setting  up  a  wild 
yell,  they  hurled  themselves  forward  sword  in  hand. 
Breaking  through  the  advance  guard,  they  carried 
terror  and  panic  into  the  body  of  the  enemy,  and 
before  many  minutes  the  issue  was  decided.  "All  was 
over,  and  the  mingled  torrent  of  red-coats  and  tartans 
went  raving  down  the  valley  to  the  Gorge  of  Killie- 
crankie." 

"Like  a  tempest  down  the  ridges 
Swept  the  hurricane  of  steel, 
Rose  the  slogan  of  Maedonald — 
Flash'd  the  broadsword  of  Lochiel  I 
****** 
w  Dorse  and  man  went  down  before  us — 
Living  foe  their  tarried  none 
On  the  field  of  Killiecrankie, 

When  that  stubborn  fight  was  done." 

The  battle,  though  a  complete  victory  for  the 
Highlanders,  was  actually  the  death-blow  of  the 
cause  for  which  they  fought.  Duudee,  while  rising 
in  his  stirrups  and  waving  his  hat  to  direct  the  move- 
ments of  the  cavalry,  was  shot  under  the  left  armpit 
and  mortally  wounded.    A  cloud  of  smoke  hid  him 


348     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

at  the  instant  from  the  eyes  of  both  armies,  but  a 
soldier  who  was  close  by  caught  him  in  his  arms  as 
he  fell  forward.  "How  goes  the  day?"  asked  the 
dying  General.  "  Well  for  King  James/'  said  the 
soldier;  "  but  I  am  sorry  for  your  lordship."  "  If  it 
is  well  for  him,  it  matters  the  less  for  me,"  was  the 
reply.  Wrapped  in  plaids,  he  was  borne  back  to 
Blair  Castle,  and  shortly  died.  He  was  buried  in  the 
Church  of  Blair.  It  is  related  that  when  King 
William  was  urged  to  send  a  strong  force  to  Scotland, 
after  the  defeat  of  Killiecrankie,  he  replied  that 
there  was  no  need ;  "  the  war  ended,"  said  he,  "  with 
Dundee's  life." 

In  the  '45  Prince  Charlie  spent  a  night  at  Blair 
Castle,1  on  his  march  to  Edinburgh,  and  he  stopped 
there  again  on  the  retreat  to  the  North. 

In  March,  1746,  Lord  George  Murray  executed  a 
brilliant  manoeuvre,  whereby  thirty  Government  posts 
in  Perthshire  were  captured  simultaneously.  The 
Bridge  of  Bruar,  about  two  miles  west  of  Blair 
Castle,  was  the  appointed  place  of  rendezvous.  Here, 
close  on  to  daybreak,  Lord  George,  with  but  twenty- 
four  men,  was  anxiously  awaiting  the  return  of  his 
attacking  parties,  when  he  suddenly  became  aware 
that  Sir  Andrew  Agnew,  who  commanded  Blair 
Castle  for  the  Government,  was  approaching  with  a 

1  It  is  interesting,  as  showing  the  progress  of  gardening  in  the 
Highlands  to  know  that  it  was  at  Blair  Castle  that  the  Prince, 
though  he  had  spent  his  youth  in  Italy,  saw  and  ate  pineapples  for 
the  first  time. 


PERTH. 


349 


strong  party.  By  stationing  his  men  at  intervals 
behind  a  turf  wall,  and  starting  up  the  bagpipes  in 
deafening  uproar,  he  succeeded  in  so  misleading  the 
cautious  Sir  Andrew  that  the  latter  faced  about  and 
marched  his  men  back  to  Blair  Castle.  Thither  Lord 
George  followed  him  so  soon  as  his  party  had  reas- 
sembled ;  but  his  siege  of  the  Castle  (which  was  his 
brother's  seat)  was  unsuccessful,  and  on  the  2d  of 
April  it  was  abandoned. 

Three  miles  below  Killiecrankie,  on  the  River 
Tummell,  is  the  very  flourishing  village  of  Pitlochrie, 
near  which  is  the  house  of  Kinnaird,  where  Louis 
Stevenson  wrote  his  immortal  romance  of  Treasure 
Island. 

About  twenty  miles  down  the  Valley  of  the  Tay, 
on  the  border  line  between  the  Highlands  and  the 
Lowlands,  is  the  pretty  town  of  Dunk  eld — "  a  little 
place  full  of  Disaffection,"  it  is  termed  in  an  account 
written  after  the  '45.  George  Buchanan,  writing  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  says  its  ancient  name  was  Cale- 
donia, but  it  "is  vulgarly  called  Dunkeld — the  hill  of 
the  Hazel  trees."  The  accepted  derivation  is  duncal- 
den,  fort  of  the  Keledei  or  Culdees.  After  the 
destruction  by  the  Norsemen  of  the  Columban  settle- 
ment at  Iona  early  in  the  ninth  century,  King  Ken- 
neth MacAlpin  built  a  church  at  Dunkeld,  trans- 
ferred thither  some  of  the  relics  of  St.  Columba,  and 
made  its  abbot  Bishop  over  the  newly- acquired  King- 
dom of  the  Southern  Picts. 


350     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


The  monks  who  were  placed  in  the  Dunkeld  Mon- 
astery were  Keledei  or  Culdees.  The  body  of  clergy 
bearing  this  much-discussed  name  were  "  an  ascetic 
order,  who  adopted  a  solitary  service  of  God  in  an 
isolated  cell  as  the  highest  form  of  religious  life,  and 
were  termed  Deicoloe.  They  became  associated  in 
communities  of  anchorites  or  hermits ;  were  clerics, 
and  might  be  called  monks,  but  only  in  the  sense  in 
which  anchorites  were  monks ;  they  made  their  ap- 
pearance in  the  eastern  districts  of  Scotland  at  the 
same  time  as  the  secular  clergy  were  introduced,  and 
succeeded  the  Columban  monks,  who  had  been  driven 
across  the  great  mountain  range  of  Drumalban,  the 
western  frontier  of  the  Pictish  Kingdom ;  and  they 
were  finally  brought  under  the  canonical  rule,  along 
with  the  secular  clergy,  retaining  however  to  some 
extent  the  nomenclature  of  the  monastery,  until  at 
length  the  name  of  Keledens  or  Culdee  became  almost 
synonymous  with  that  of  secular  canon." 

In  the  tenth  century  the  Abbots  of  Dunkeld  had 
become  great  lay  lords ;  they  married  and  held  their 
benefices  in  hereditary  succession.  It  is  from  a  lay 
Abbot  of  Dunkeld,  Crinan  "the  Thane,"  who  mar- 
ried Bethoc,  daughter  and  heir  of  Malcolm  II. 
(about  1100),  that  all  the  subsequent  Kings  of  Scot- 
land, except  Macbeth  and  Lulach,  are  descended. 

The  Dunkeld  Cathedral,  as  we  see  it  to-day,  dates 
mainly  from  the  fifteenth  century.  The  choir,  re- 
built in  modern  times  to  serve  as  a  parish  church,  was 


PERTH. 


351 


constructed  (about  1315)  under  Bishop  St.  Clair — he 
whom  Barbour  calls  "rycht  hardy,  meikill  and 
stark."  This  sturdy  prelate,  hearing  that  King 
Edward  of  England  had  sailed  up  the  Forth  and 
was  landing  men  at  Donibristle,  in  Fife,  hastily  put 
on  his  armor  beneath  a  linen  rochet,  and  assembling 
sixty  of  his  own  retainers,  rode  off  in  hot  haste  to 
give  battle.  On  the  road  he  met  a  panic-stricken 
band,  fleeing  from  the  invaders.  Seizing  a  spear  and 
flinging  on0  his  rochet,  he  rallied  the  Fife  men  with 
the  inspiriting  cry,  "Let  all  who  love  their  country 
and  their  King  turn  again  with  me!"  The  English 
were  repulsed  and  driven  back  to  their  ship  with  such 
loss  that  they  abandoned  the  enterprise.  King  Robert 
Bruce  was  in  Ireland  at  the  time.  When  he  heard 
of  the  affair  he  declared  that  St.  Clair  should  be  his 
own  Bishop ;  and  by  the  title,  thus  honorably  won, 
of  the  "King's  Bishop"  he  was  accordingly  from 
thenceforth  known. 

The  chapter  house  of  the  Dunkeld  Cathedral,  of 
a  slightly  later  date  than  the  choir,  is  now  the  burial 
place  of  the  Dukes  of  Atholl.  The  nave  was  begun 
by  Bishop  Cardeny  in  1406,  who  also  built  a  Castle 
for  the  Episcopal  residence ;  his  beautiful  monument 
is  still  seen  on  the  south  side  of  the  nave.  Bishop 
Lauder  completed  the  Cathedral  and  consecrated  it  in 
1464  ;  he  likewise  erected  the  northwest  tower,  and 
gave  many  of  the  carvings,  paintings  and  other 
interior  decorations  which  were   destroyed   at  the 


352     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Reformation.  Although  the  Lairds  of  Arntully  and 
Kinvaid,  who  were  appointed  to  carry  out  this  work, 
were  expressly  instructed  not  to  injure  the  fabric,  and 
to  preserve  the  glass  and  woodwork  intact,  they,  or 
more  likely  their  fanatic  followers,  allowed  their  en- 
thusiasm to  get  the  better  of  them,  burned  the  roof 
and  wrecked  the  entire  building.  An  interesting 
object  in  Dunkeld  Cathedral  is  the  altar-tomb  of 
Alexander  Stewart,  the  "Wolf  of  Badenoch."  It  is 
singular  indeed  to  find  the  effigy  of  this  fierce  icono- 
clast and  enemy  of  the  Church  reposing  almost  intact 
upon  its  carved  tomb,  while  the  monuments  of  saintly 
Bishops  and  revered  Abbots  are  mutilated  past  iden- 
tification. That,  for  example,  of  Bishop  St.  Clair 
cannot  certainly  be  known,  though  a  mutilated  stone 
figure  close  by  the  tomb  of  the  "  Wolf"  is  supposed 
to  represent  him.  Among  Dunkeld's  famous  Bishops 
was  Gavin  Douglas,  brother  of  the  great  Earl  of 
Angus,  and  the  classic  scholar  and  poet. 

The  Cathedral  stands  in  the  elaborately  laid  out 
grounds  of  the  Duke  of  Atholl,  whose  house  is  near 
the  river;  the  foundations  of  an  ambitious  Castle 
begun  by  the  fourth  Duke,  but  subsequently  aban- 
doned, are  seen  further  on.  A  few  weeks  after  the 
battle  of  Killiecrankie  the  Cameronian  regiment  was 
sent  to  garrison  Dunkeld.  The  commander  was  a 
gallant  young  man  named  Cleland,  who,  though  but 
twenty-six  years  old,  had  nevertheless  taken  part  ten 
years  before  in  the  battle  of  Both  well  Brig.  Keenly 


PERTH. 


353 


alive  to  the  extreme  peril  of  his  situation — at  the  head 
of  a  small  body  of  men  whose  very  name  pointed 
them  out  for  especial  dislike  among  the  Jacobites,  in 
the  midst  of  a  hostile  country  and  cut  off  from  auy 
probability  of  relief — >the  youthful  commander  took 
every  means  in  his  power  to  strengthen  his  position 
and  reassure  his  men.  He  selected  the  tower  of  the 
Cathedral  and  the  adjoining  house  of  the  Duke  of 
Atholl  as  the  best  places  in  which  to  take  up  his  posi- 
tion, and  in  order  to  convince  the  regiment  that  come 
what  might  they  would  not  be  abandoned,  he  and  his 
officers  offered  to  shoot  their  horses. 

On  the  morning  of  August  21  (1689)  the  High- 
landers, to  the  number  of  several  thousand  men,  at- 
tacked the  town  furiously  in  four  different  places  at 
once.  The  Cameronians  held  their  ground  and  for 
four  hours  the  battle  raged,  the  Highlanders,  in  spite 
of  their  greatly  superior  numbers,  being  unable  to 
dislodge  the  enemy.  Colonel  Cleland  was  killed  early 
in  the  day  and  the  entire  town  was  in  flames  before 
lack  of  ammunition  forced  the  attacking  party  to 
draw  off.  The  Cameronians  were  left  masters  of  the 
field,  with  three  hundred  bodies  of  their  foes  to  attest 
the  reality  of  the  victory. 

Two  miles  to  the  southwest  of  Dunkeld  is  Birnam 
Hill,  once  a  part  of  a  royal  forest.  A  local  tradition, 
which  Shakespeare  adopted  from  Hollinshead's  Chron- 
icle, tells  how  the  army  of  Malcolm  Ceannmor,  march- 
ing to  attack  Macbeth  at  Dunsinane,  broke  off  branches 
Vol.  IL— 23 


354     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


from  the  trees  of  this  forest  and  carried  them  in  their 
hands,  "  either  by  way  of  distinction  or  from  some 
other  motive.  Thus  was  fulfilled  the  witches'  pro- 
phecy : 

"  1  Macbeth  shall  never  vanquished  be  until 
Great  Birnam  Wood  to  high  Dunsinane  hill 
Shall  come  against  him.'  "  1 

Dunsinane  is  in  the  Sidland  hills,  twelve  miles 
from  Birnam,  across  the  Tay  Valley.  It  rises  to  a 
height  of  over  a  thousand  feet  above  sea  level  in  the 
shape  of  a  truncated  cone,  on  the  level  top  of  which 
is  an  ancient  fort  which  bears  the  name  of  Macbeth's 
Castle,  probably  derived  from  Shakespeare's  play,  but 
possibly  from  the  older  tradition.  Yet  Macbeth  was 
not  killed  at  Dunsinane,  but  at  Lumphanan  in  Aber- 
deenshire.2 

In  the  river  Bran,  which  flows  into  the  Tay  near 
the  Bridge  of  Dunkeld,  are  the  pretty  Falls  of  Bran, 
and  close  by  is  the  Rumbliug  Bridge  spanning  a  deep, 
rocky  chasm,  through  which  the  river  runs  with  a 
roar  that  has  given  rise  to  the  name. 

Aberfeldy,  a  charming  village  on  the  Tay,  is  cele- 
brated in  modern  times  as  being  the  place  where  the 
first  Highland  regiment,  the  celebrated  Black  Watch, 
was  embodied  in  1740.  When  the  Government  was 
in  despair  as  to  how  the  Highlands  were  to  be  kept 

i  "  Macbeth,"  Act  IV.,  Scene  1. 
3  See  p.  294,  Vol.  II. 


PERTH. 


355 


quiet  it  was  suggested  by  Duncan  Forbes  of  Culloden 
that  it  would  be  well  to  enlist  companies  of  High- 
landers under  their  own  chiefs  to  keep  the  country  in 
order,  and  this  scheme  was  actually  adopted  about  the 
year  1730.  Six  independent  companies  were  then 
formed  and  distributed  throughout  the  Highlands. 
The  company  that  patrolled  the  country  near  Inver- 
ness was  given  to  Lord  Lovat ;  another  company  was 
commanded  by  Munro  of  Culcairn  in  Ross-shire ;  a 
third  belonged  to  the  Grants  and  the  three  others 
were  composed  of  Campbells.  In  1739  it  was  deter- 
mined to  embody  these  companies  into  one  regular 
regiment  for  general  service,  and  the  new  regiment 
assembled  in  May,  1740,  under  the  Earl  of  Craw- 
ford in  a  field  near  Aberfeldy,  where  a  monument 
has  been  erected  to  celebrate  the  event.  The  regi- 
ment from  the  first  wore  the  Highland  dress,  but,  as 
its  commander  was  a  Lowlander  and  had  no  recog- 
nized tartan  of  his  own,  the  well  known  Black  Watch 
tartan  of  dark  green,  blue  and  black  was  designed  for 
its  use,  and  the  name  of  the  regiment  is  supposed  to 
be  derived  from  the  darkness  of  the  tartan. 

Indignation  at  the  loss  of  his  independent  company, 
consequent  on  the  establishment  of  the  regiment,  is 
supposed  to  have  been  one  of  the  principal  reasons  of 
Lord  Lovat  for  joining  the  Jacobites  in  1745,  and  there 
can  also  be  no  doubt  that  the  absence  of  these  local 
independent  companies,  who  policed  the  Highlands, 
was  a  considerable  factor  in  that  insurrection.  The 


356     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Black  Watch  was  sent  to  Flanders  in  1743,  and  for 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half  this  regiment,  equally 
well  known  as  the  Forty-second,  or  the  "  Forty-twa," 
has  borne  a  distinguished  part  wherever  the  British 
arms  have  been  employed. 

About  a  mile  from  the  Tay,  north  of  Aberfeldy,  is 
Castle  Menzies,  the  very  interesting  baronial  residence 
of  Sir  Robert  Menzies,  chief  of  the  Clan  Menzies. 
The  Castle  was  built  in  1571  and  greatly  added  to 
two  hundred  and  seventy  years  later.  The  park  is 
celebrated  for  its  old  trees,  among  the  finest  in  Scot- 
land. Here  Prince  Charles  spent  the  4th  and  5th  of 
February,  1746,  when  he  found  relaxation  from  his 
anxieties  by  two  days'  hunting  in  the  neighborhood. 

Near  Aberfeldy  are  the  Falls  of  Moness,  sung  by 
Burns  in  "  The  Birks  of  Aberfeldie."  On  the  north- 
east shore  of  Loch  Tay  rises  Ben  Lawers,  whose 
summit  commands  what  is  probably  the  most  ex- 
tended view  in  all  Scotland.  The  Firth  of  Tay  on 
the  east,  Loch  Laggan  on  the  north,  Ben  Cruachan 
and  the  hills  bordering  Loch  Katrine  and  Loch 
Lomond  on  the  west  and  southwest,  and  Edinburgh 
itself  on  the  south  are  all  said  to  be  visible  from 
thence  on  a  clear  day.  Ben  Lawers  is  also  famed  for 
the  great  variety  of  Alpine  plants  found  on  it. 

On  an  island  at  the  northeast  end  of  Loch 
Tay  are  the  scanty  remains  of  a  Priory  built  on 
the  site  of  an  earlier  foundation  by  Alexander 
L,  to  mark  the  grave  of  his  wife  Sibylla,  daughter 


PEKTH. 


357 


of  Henry  I.,  King  of  England.  In  a  note  to 
The  Fair  Maid  of  Perth  Sir  Walter  Scott  says, 
"  The  security  no  less  than  the  beauty  of  the  situations 
led  to  the  choice  of  these  lake  islands  for  religious 
establishments.  Those  in  the  Highlands  were  gener- 
ally of  a  lowly  character,  and  in  many  of  them  the 
monastic  orders  were  tolerated  and  the  rites  of  the 
Romish  Church  observed  long  after  the  Reformation 
had  swept  both  '  the  Rooks  and  their  nests '  out  of  the 
Lowlands.  The  Priory  on  Loch  Tay  was  founded  by 
Alexander  I.,  and  the  care  of  it  committed  to  a  small 
body  of  monks,  but  the  last  residents  in  it  were  three 
nuns,  who,  when  they  did  emerge  into  society,  seemed 
determined  to  enjoy  it  in  its  most  complicated  and 
noisy  state,  for  they  came  out  only  once  a  year  and 
that  to  a  market  at  Kenmore.  Hence  that  fair  is  still 
called  '  Fiell  na  m'hau  maomb/  or  Holy  Woman's 
Market." 

Beyond  the  Tay  on  the  west  extends  the  Breadal- 
bane  country,  which  since  1681  has  given  the  title 
of  Earl  and  lately  Marquis  to  a  powerful  branch  of 
the  Campbells.  The  EarPs  seat  is  Taymouth  Castle, 
standing  on  the  Tay,  about  a  mile  from  the  village  of 
Kenmore.  The  Breadalbane  Campbells  are  descended 
from  the  Regent  Robert,  Duke  of  Albany,  through 
his  daughter  Marjory  Stewart,  who  married  Sir  Colin 
Campbell,  third  son  of  Sir  Duncan  Campbell  of 
Lochow.  Sir  Colin  was  the  founder  of  the  Campbells 
of  Glenorchy,  an  estate  in  Argyllshire  from  which  the 


358     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 

Campbells,  by  successive  aggressions,  expelled  the 
Macgregors,  its  ancient  chiefs ;  while  the  Barony 
of  Lawers  in  Perthshire  was  given  to  Sir  Colin  by 
James  II.,  in  recognition  of  his  services  in  tracking 
the  assassins  of  James  I.  He  was  the  builder  of 
Kilchurn  Castle  on  Loch  Awe,  and  his  great-grand- 
son, another  Sir  Colin,  built  Balloch  Castle,  a  part 
of  which  is  incorporated  in  the  modern  Taymouth 
Castle.  His  son,  Donacha  dher  na  Curich  (Black 
Duncan  of  the  Cowl),  was  knighted  at  the  coronation 
of  James  II.'s  Queen,  Anne  of  Denmark.  He  lived 
in  princely  style  at  Balloch,  the  inventory  of  his 
"geir"  including,  besides  all  manner  of  household 
stuffs,  arras,  hangings,  cushions,  canopies  and  the  like, 
richly-appointed  beds  to  the  number  of  twenty.  One 
of  them  was  of  "  incarnatt  London  cloath  imbroiderit 
with  black  velvett."  There  were  also  fifty-four  por- 
traits of  the  Kings  and  Queens  of  Scotland,  the  Lords 
and  Ladies  of  Glenorchy  and  other  great  personages, 
many  jewels  and  pieces  of  silver  plate,  and  a  very 
complete  outfit  of  arms,  "brasin  pistollettes,"  Jed- 
burgh staves,  Lochaber  axes,  "  great  iron  fetters  for 
men's  feet  and  hands,  ane  heading  ax"  and  other 
similar  conveniences. 

His  son,  Sir  Colin  Campbell,  enriched  the  Balloch 
Gallery  with  a  set  of  family  portraits  painted  by 
Jamesone,  the  "Scottish  Vandyke."  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  brother,  a  Covenanter,  who  conse- 
quently drew  down  upon  himself  the  fury  of  Mon- 


PERTH. 


359 


trose,  his  whole  estate  being  laid  waste  in  the  cam- 
paign of  1645. 

Sir  Robert's  grandson,  Sir  John,  first  Earl  of 
Breadalbane,  left  a  reputation  for  singular  sagacity. 
"The  Earl  is  of  a  fair  complexion  and  has  the 
gravity  of  a  Spaniard,  is  as  cunning  as  a  fox,  wise 
as  a  serpent  and  slippery  as  an  eel.  .  .  .  No  Gov- 
ernment can  trust  him  but  when  his  own  private 
interest  is  in  view." 

After  the  Revolution  this  Earl  of  Breadalbane 
was  engaged  to  use  his  influence  to  induce  the 
Jacobite  chiefs  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  to  sub- 
mit to  William  and  Mary.  Fifteen  thousand  pounds 
were  placed  in  his  hands  to  be  expended  in  this 
business,  but  it  was  suspected  that  much  of  this 
money  never  reached  the  persons  for  whom  it  was 
intended.  When  Lord  Nottingham  suggested  the 
propriety  of  an  account  being  rendered,  the  Earl 
replied,  "  My  Lord,  the  money  is  spent,  the  High- 
lands are  quiet,  and  this  is  the  only  way  of  account- 
ing among  friends."  It  was  Breadalbane  who  was 
mainly  responsible  for  the  massacre  of  Glencoe.  The 
Earl's  first  wife,  Lady  Mary  Rich,  was  a  daughter 
of  the  first  Earl  of  Holland  and  a  great  heiress. 
The  marriage  took  place  in  London,  and  it  is  said 
that  the  pair  performed  the  journey  to  Balloch  on 
horseback,  the  bride  seated  behind  her  husband, 
while  the  " tocher" — dower — of  £10,000  in  gold  coin 
was  placed  in  a  leather  bag  and  laid  on  the  back 


360     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 

of  a  Highland  pony,  on  either  side  of  which  rode 
an  armed  gillie. 

Taymoftth  Castle,  the  modern  residence  that  has 
replaced  Balloch  Castle,  is  a  large  building  of  gray- 
stone,  more  magnificent  than  beautiful.  It  is  especi- 
ally famed  for  its  great  hall  and  monumental  stair- 
case and  for  its  fine  collection  of  pictures. 

Glenlyon,  a  long,  narrow  valley  to  the  north  of 
Loch  Tay,  was  once  the  property  of  a  branch  of  the 
Breadalbane  Campbells,  whose  chieftain  in  1692  was 
the  principal  agent  in  the  massacre  of  Glencoe. 
The  glen  was  much  frequented  as  a  hiding-place 
by  Jacobite  fugitives  after  Culloden. 

The  Laird,  son  of  the  butcher  of  Glencoe,  was  a 
fervent  Jacobite,  but  was  dying  when  Prince  Charles 
was  in  Scotland.  His  eldest  son  had  accepted  a  com- 
mission in  the  Black  Watch  and  remained  faithful  to 
the  Government,  which  so  enraged  his  father  that  he 
refused  again  to  see  him,  even  on  his  death-bed. 
There  is  a  pleasant  story  told  of  this  son.  After  his 
father's  death  in  the  autumn  of  1746  he  was  told  off 
to  garrison  his  own  house  of  Glenlyon,  along  with  a 
party  of  English  officers  and  soldiers.  His  younger 
brother,  who  had  been  out  with  Prince  Charles,  was 
then  hiding  in  a  deep  den  behind  the  house,  and  one 
evening,  approaching  the  house  before  it  was  quite 
dark,  he  was  espied  by  the  officers  of  the  garrison. 
With  great  presence  of  mind,  the  elder  brother  called 
out,  telling  him  where  to  hide  himself,  in  Gaelic — a 


Pass  of  Glenlyon 


PERTH. 


361 


language  not  understood  by  the  English — and  then 
running  back  to  call  out  the  troops,  the  glen  was 
searched,  but  naturally  the  rebel's  hiding-place  was 
not  found.  Ten  years  later  this  younger  brother 
joined  a  Highland  regiment  and  fell  gloriously  with 
Wolfe  at  Quebec,  while  the  elder  brother's  military 
career  ended  in  a  tragical  fashion,  as  will  be  related 
in  the  chapter  on  Argyllshire. 

South  of  Loch  Tay  is  Loch  Earn,  beautifully  situ- 
ated in  the  heart  of  a  circle  of  lofty  hills,  above  which 
Ben  Vorlich  towers  on  the  south.  Its  one  island  is 
named  Neish,  from  a  family  who  long  inhabited  it. 
They  were  at  feud  with  the  MacNabs,  whose  country 
lay  at  the  head  of  Loch  Tay.  After  a  series  of  aggres- 
sions on  both  sides,  the  head  of  the  Neishs  waylaid 
and  robbed  a  servant  of  the  MacNabs,  who  was  return- 
ing from  Crieff  laden  with  Christmas  stores.  That 
evening,  while  the  twelve  stalwart  sons  of  the  chief 
of  the  MacNabs  sat  brooding  over  this  insult,  their 
father  broke  the  silence  with  the  significant  remark, 
"  The  night  is  the  night,  if  the  lads  were  but  lads." 
Instantly  the  twelve  young  men  arose  and  went  out. 
In  order  to  reach  the  island-home  of  their  enemies, 
they  were  obliged  to  carry  a  boat  all  the  way  from 
Loch  Tay  across  the  mountains  to  Loch  Earn.  This 
they  accomplished,  and  landing  on  the  island  surprised 
and  slew  all  the  Neishes  but  two,  a  man  and  a  boy, 
who  lay  hidden  under  a  bed.  When  they  dutifully 
presented  the  heads  of  the  slaughtered  Neishes  to  their 


362     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


father,  the  old  chief  said  approvingly,  "The  night 
was  the  night  and  the  lads  were  the  lads."  So  at 
least  runs  the  tradition. 

The  village  of  St.  Fillans  and  the  district  called 
Strathfillan  owe  their  name  to  Fillan  "the  leper,"  a 
saint  of  the  early  Pictish  Church  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  scene  of  whose  labors  was  "the  Fort  of  the 
Earn  in  Scotland. "  He  was  a  favorite  saint  of  King 
Robert  Bruce,  and  we  find  James  III.  confirming  the 
office  of  bearer  of  his  pastoral  staff — called  the  Coy- 
gerach — to  the  family  of  one  Malice  Doire  or  lore ; 
the  privilege  had  first  been  granted  to  them  by  King 
Robert  Bruce.  The  head  of  this  crosier  is  said  to 
have  been  taken  to  America  by  a  member  of  the 
family,  who  emigrated  early  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. 

Xear  Tyndrum  in  Strathfillan  is  the  spot  known  as 
Dairy  (Dal  Righ) — the  King's  field — where  Bruce 
with  a  small  band  was  attacked  and  defeated  by  a 
large  force  commanded  by  Macdougal  of  Lorn. 
Bruce  performed  prodigies  of  valor  on  this  occa- 
sion. A  brooch  is  still  treasured  in  the  Macdougal 
family,  traditionally  said  to  have  fastened  the  mantle 
worn  that  day  by  the  King.  Clutched  in  the  convul- 
sive grasp  of  a  soldier  whom  he  had  just  slain, 
the  mantle  so  embarrassed  his  movements  that  he 
cut  himself  loose  with  his  sword  and  left  it  on  the 
field. 

Of  this  beautiful  stretch  of  country  lying  between 


PERTH. 


363 


Callander  and  Loch  Katrine  in  southwestern  Perth- 
shire, no  further  description  has  ever  been  needed 
since  Scott  wrote  The  Lady  of  the  Lake,  For  the 
modern  traveller,  to  be  sure,  bowling  smoothly  along 
on  the  top  of  a  coach  over  a  well-made  road,  much  of 
the  wildness  of  the  scene  as  it  was  when  the  poem  was 
written  has  been  lost. 

The  Lady  of  the  Lake  is  written  in  six  cantos,  and 
covers  six  days.  It  opens  with  the  starting  of  a  stag 
in  the  early  morning  by  a  party  of  huntsmen,  a  few 
miles  northeast  of  Callander.  The  chase  lasts  all  day  ; 
up  the  steep  slopes  of  Uam  Var,  over  Cambusmore 
and  Ben  Ledi,  twice  across  the  Teith  in  flood,  west- 
ward it  swept.  When  Loch  Vennachar  was  reached 
"  few  were  the  stragglers  following  far,"  till  at  length 
at  the  Brig  of  Turk  "the  foremost  horseman  rode 
alone."  At  the  entrance  to  the  gorge  this  huntsman, 
King  James  Ws,  horse  fell  dead  and  he,  proceeding 
on  foot,  reached  Loch  Katrine  and  beheld  the  Lady 
of  the  Lake  pushing  her  light  skiff  across  its  blue 
waters.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  poem  the  scene  is 
laid  in  Stirling  Castle. 

Some  of  the  scenes  in  the  Legend  of  Montrose  and 
Rob  Roy  are  laid  in  neighboring  parts  of  Perthshire. 
Scott's  first  acquaintance  with  this  part  of  the  country 
was  in  1790,  when  he  a  "  writer's  apprentice  "  was  sent 
with  an  armed  escort  to  enforce  the  execution  of  a 
legal  instrument  against  some  Maclarens,  tenants  of 
Stewart  of  Appin.    "  The  sergeant  was  absolutely  a 


364     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Highland  Sergeant  Kile,"  writes  Scott  of  this  expe- 
dition, "  full  of  stories  of  Rob  Roy  and  of  himself,  and 
a  very  good  companion." 

After  TJie  Lady  of  the  Lake  had  been  begun,  while 
visiting  Cambusmore,  near  the  head  waters  of  the 
Teith,  Scott  rode  from  Loch  Vennachar  to  Stirling 
Castle,  to  see  if  it  could  be  done  in  the  limited  space 
of  time  he  allows  Fitz  James  for  the  same  ride  in  the 
poem  (after  the  duel  with  Roderick  Dim). 

The  Lady  of  the  Lake  wras  published  in  May,  1810. 
Its  appearance  was  awaited  with  extraordinary  inter- 
est. "  James  Ballantyne  read  the  cantos  from  time 
to  time  to  select  coteries  as  they  advanced  at  press. 
Common  fame  was  loud  in  their  favor ;  a  great  poem 
was  on  all  hands  anticipated.  I  do  not  recollect  that 
any  of  the  author's  works  was  ever  looked  for  with 
more  intense  anxiety,  or  that  any  one  of  them  excited  a 
more  extraordinary  sensation  wThen  it  did  appear.  The 
whole  country  rang  with  praises  of  the  poet ;  crowds 
set  off  to  view  the  scenery  of  Loch  Katrine,  till  then 
comparatively  unknown ;  and  as  the  book  came  out 
just  before  the  season  for  excursions,  every  house 
and  inn  in  that  neighborhood  was  crammed  with 
a  constant  succession  of  visitors.  It  is  a  well 
ascertained  fact  that  from  the  date  of  the  publica- 
tion of  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  the  post-horse  duty 
in  Scotland  rose  in  an  extraordinary  degree,  and 
indeed  it  continued  to  do  so  regularly  for  a  number 
of  years,  the  author's  succeeding  works  keeping  up 


PERTH. 


365 


the  enthusiasm  for  our  scenery,  which  he  had  thus 
originally  created."  1 

Scott  does  not  appear  himself  to  have  shared  in  the 
popular  enthusiasm  for  his  poetry.  James  Ballan- 
tyne,  on  finding  his  daughter  Sophia  alone  in  her 
father's  study  one  day,  said  to  her,  "  Well,  Miss 
Sophia,  how  do  you  like  The  Lady  of  the  Lake?" 
"  Oh,  I  have  not  read  it,"  was  the  unexpected  reply. 
"  Papa  says  there  is  nothing  so  bad  for  young  people 
as  reading  bad  poetry." 

Some  four  miles  south  of  Callander  is  the  little 
Lake  of  Menteith,  which,  contrasted  with  the  rugged 
scenery  of  the  Trossachs,  presents  "  an  aspect  of  soft 
pastoral  beauty  which  soothes  the  soul."  It  is  but  a 
mile  and  a  half  long  and  its  greatest  breadth  is  about 
a  mile.  There  are  three  little  islands  in  the  lake,  the 
smallest  of  which,  the  "  Dog  Isle,"  was  used  for  the 
kennels  of  the  Earl  of  Menteith.  On  a  larger  island, 
Talla,  stand  the  ruins  of  Ilantullo  Castle,  built  by  the 
first  Graham  Earl  about  1427,  which  was  the  prin- 
cipal residence  of  the  family  down  to  the  death  of  the 
last  Earl  in  1694. 

But  the  most  celebrated  of  the  islands  is  the  largest, 
Inchmahome,  the  island  of  Mocholmoc  or  Colmon,  an 
Irish  saint,  where  stood  a  celebrated  Augustinian 
monastery,  to  which  Queen  Mary,  when  a  child  of 
five,  was  taken  for  safety  after  the  battle  of  Pinkie  in 
1547,  and  where,  or  in  the  neighborhood,  she  remained 

1  Robert  Cadell,  quoted  in  Lockhart's  Life. 


366     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

until  her  removal  to  France  the  following  year.  The 
Priory  was  originally  built  in  the  thirteenth  century 
by  a  Comyn  Earl  of  Menteith,  and  was  a  flourishing 
establishment  down  to  Reformation  times,  since  when 
it  has  gradually  become  a  ruin. 

A  small  garden  thirty-five  yards  square,  surrounded 
by  a  stone  wall,  is  known  as  Queen  Mary's  Garden 
and  Bower.  Dr.  John  Brown,  in  a  sketch  called 
"Queen  Mary's  Child-garden/'  gives  a  charming 
picture  of  the  little  Queen  surrounded  by  "  her  four 
Marys,  her  child-maids  of  honor,  with  their  little 
hands  and  feet  and  their  innocent  and  happy  eyes, 
pattering  about  that  garden  all  that  time  ago, 
laughing  and  running  and  gardening,  as  only  chil- 
dren do  and  can.  There  is  something  c  that  tirls  the 
heart-strings  a'  to  the  life '  in  standing  and  looking  on 
the  unmistakable  living  relic  of  that  strange  and 
pathetic  old  time." 

There  is  an  old  boxwood  tree,  said  to  have  been 
planted  by  the  little  Queen,  which  still  flourishes. 
Until  some  forty  years  ago  there  were  other  large 
boxwood  trees,  bits  no  doubt  of  the  old  box-borders 
grown  to  trees  in  three  hundred  years'  neglect.  These 
were  actually  pulled  to  pieces  by  tourists,  and  the 
Duke  of  Montrose,  the  present  proprietor,  replaced 
them  with  slips  that  have  grown  so  well  that  tourists, 
particularly  Americans,  nearly  all  take  cuttings  of 
box  from  the  garden,  in  the  belief  that  they  come 
from  bushes  planted  by  Queen  Mary.     In  reality 


Ellen's  Isle,  Loch  Katrine 


PERTH. 


367 


these  bushes  came,  and  but  lately,  from  the  neigh- 
boring garden  of  Cardross. 

The  district  of  Menteith — that  is  the  country  of 
the  river  Teith,  in  which  Callander  and  the  Trossachs 
are  situated,  as  well  as  the  Lake  of  Menteith  and 
Loch  Ard — was  one  of  the  ancient  Celtic  Earldoms 
of  Scotland,  which  passed  by  the  marriage  of  heiresses 
to  the  Comyn  family  in  the  thirteenth  century  and  on 
their  downfall  to  the  Stewarts.  The  Sir  John  Men- 
teith who  delivered  Wallace  to  Edward  I.  was  the 
younger  son  of  a  Walter  Stewart,  who  on  marrying 
the  heiress  had  assumed  the  name  of  Menteith.  His 
great  granddaughter,  failing  male  heirs,  carried  the 
title  by  marriage  to  a  Graham,  but  again  male  heirs 
failed,  and  the  Graham  Countess  was  succeeded  by  her 
only  daughter,  who  married  as  her  fourth  husband 
Robert,  Duke  of  Albany,  the  third  son  of  King 
Robert  II.  The  next  holder  of  the  title  was  her 
eldest  son,  the  wicked  Murdac,  Duke  of  Albany,  who, 
with  his  two  surviving  sons,  was  beheaded  at  Stirling 
by  James  I.,1  and  the  title  reverted  to  the  Crown. 
On  the  death  of  these  traitors  the  Earldom  once 
more  passed  to  the  Grahams.  It  was  given  to  Malise 
Graham,  Earl  of  Strathearn,  whose  mother,  the  wife 
of  Sir  Patrick  Graham,  was  the  only  child  of  David 
Stewart,  the  Earl  of  Strathearn,  the  eldest  son  of 
Robert  II.  by  his  second  marriage. 

The  reader  will  remember  the  irregular  first  mar- 

1  See  p.  217,  Vol  I. 


368     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

riage  of  that  monarch  and  the  controversies  it  gave 
rise  to/  and  this  account  of  the  Menteith  title  is  here 
given  to  show  how  tenacious  the  Scottish  people  are 
of  hereditary  claims,  and  how  equally  tenacious  kings 
are  of  their  royal  prerogatives.  For  nigh  two  hun- 
dred years  the  title  descended  in  usual  course  from 
father  to  son  in  the  Graham  family,  and  in  the  year 
1610  Walter  Graham  succeeded  his  father  as  the 
seventh  Graham  Earl,  and  he  was  served  heir  to  the 
quasi-royal  title  of  Earl  of  Strathearn,  borne  by  his 
ancestor,  the  son  of  Robert  II.  He  was  an  admir- 
able man  of  business  and  was  most  useful  to  Charles 
I.,  under  whom  he  became  Lord  Justice  General  of 
the  Kingdom  and  President  of  the  Privy  Council. 
Puffed  up  by  pride  and  with  a  certain  insolent  mag- 
nanimity, he  renounced  any  claim  to  the  throne  £or 
himself,  but  with  a  reservation  for  the  rights  of  his 
blood,  which  he  boasted  was  the  "reddest  blood  in 
Scotland,"  insinuating  that  the  King,  as  the  descend- 
ant of  Elizabeth  Mure,  was  of  an  illegitimate  line, 
and  that  he,  as  heir  of  the  eldest  son  of  the  legitimate 
marriage,  was  the  true  heir  of  the  royal  house  of 
Stewart. 

This  was  more  than  Charles  I.  could  stand,  and 
saying  with  a  sigh  of  regret  that  "  it  was  a  sore  matter 
that  he  could  not  love  a  man  but  they  pulled  him  out 
of  his  arms"  he  deprived  him  of  the  Earldom  of 
Strathearn,  but  gave  him  in  its  place  the  title  of  Earl 
1  See  p.  23,  Vol.  II. 


PERTH. 


369 


of  Airth,  which  had  no  royal  connection,  and  it  was 
declared  by  legal  fiction  that  David,  Earl  of  Strath- 
earn,  had  died  without  heirs. 

The  son  of  this  Earl  was  Lord  Kilpont,  who  went 
out  with  Montrose  and  was  murdered  in  1644  in 
Montrose's  camp  at  the  foot  of  Dunsinane  Hill  by 
Stewart  of  Ardvorlich,  in  a  private  quarrel.  This 
incident  is  part  of  the  theme  of  Sir  Walter's  Legend 
of  Montrose  ;  but,  while  in  the  novel  the  young  Lord 
recovers  and  marries  the  heroine,  in  real  life  Lord 
Kilpont  died  on  the  spot  and  his  remains  were  buried 
in  the  Priory  church  of  Inchmahome. 

In  the  same  place  there  is  a  beautiful  old  monu- 
mental tomb  of  the  first  Stewart  Earl  (died  1296)  and 
his  Countess  Mary,  in  which  their  effigies  are  repre- 
sented tenderly  embracing  one  another.  The  second 
Earl  of  Airth  was  the  son  of  the  murdered  Kilpont ; 
he  succeeded  his  grandfather  in  1661,  but  he  did  not 
venture  to  assume  the  title  of  Menteith  until  the  abdi- 
cation of  James  VII.  in  1688.  Though  twice  mar- 
ried he  left  no  children,  and  some  time  before  his 
death  he  disposed  of  his  estates  to  the  Marquis  of 
Montrose,  grandson  of  the  great  Marquis,  the  head 
of  another  branch  of  the  Grahams,  to  whose  descend- 
ant, the  present  Duke  of  Montrose,  the  Menteith 
estates  still  belong.  After  the  EarFs  death  in  1694 
the  title  remained  dormant  for  fifty  years,  when  it 
was  claimed  by  a  William  Graham,  who  said  he  was 
descended  from  Lady  Elizabeth,  a  sister  of  the  last 
Vol.  II.— 24 


370     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC 


Earl.  His  claim  was  not  denied,  but  he  was  for- 
bidden to  use  the  title  until  it  had  been  established  in 
course  of  law.  This,  probably  for  want  of  funds,  he 
did  not  do,  but  wandered  for  years  about  the  district, 
where  he  was  known  as  the  "  Beggar  Earl."  One 
morning  in  1783  he  was  found  dead  in  a  field  near 
Bouhill  in  Dumbartonshire,  the  house  of  Smollett,  the 
novelist,  who  no  doubt  knew  him  well.  Thus  per- 
ished the  last  claimant  of  the  Earldom  of  Menteith,  a 
title  as  old  as  the  history  of  Scotland.  Doune  Castle, 
which  stands  at  the  junction  of  the  Ardoch  and  the 
Teith,  was  a  former  Menteith  stronghold,  built  by 
Murdac,  Duke  of  Albany  and  Earl  of  Menteith, 
during  the  captivity  of  James  I.  It  is  now  the  prop- 
erty and  residence  of  the  Earl  of  Moray,  to  whose 
ancestor  it  was  given  by  James  VI.  The  ballad, 
founded  on  the  tragic  death  of  the  third,  the  "  Bonny  " 
Earl,  closes  with  the  lines : 

"  Oh,  lang  will  his  lady 

Look  over  the  Castle  Doune 
Ere  she  sees  the  Earl  of  Moray 

Come  sounding  through  the  town  \n 

It  is  to  Doune  that  Scott  brings  TTaverley  as  a 
prisoner,  and  the  Castle  was  also  historically  connected 
with  the  events  of  the  '45. 

Some  prisoners  taken  by  the  Jacobite  army  at  the 
battle  of  Falkirk  were  confined  there,  and  John 
Home,  afterwards  author  of  Douylas;  gives  a  descrip- 


PEKTH. 


371 


tion  of  the  place  of  imprisonment  as  "a  large, 
ghastly  room,  the  highest  part  of  the  Castle  and  next 
the  battlements."  Some  of  these  prisoners  escaped 
by  making  a  rope  of  their  blankets  and  dropping  the 
seventy  feet  to  the  ground.  A  Mr.  Witherspoon,  who 
was  afterwards  President  of  Princeton  College,  had 
come  to  Falkirk  purely  out  of  curiosity  to  see  a 
battle,  but  had  been  seized  and  confined  with  the  rest. 
Before  his  turn  came  the  rope  broke  and  he  had  to 
remain  a  prisoner. 

The  Castle  has  been  partially  restored.  There  is  a 
massive  keep,  disconnected  in  the  interior  from  the 
rest  of  the  building,  an  enclosed  courtyard  and  a  wall 
of  enceint — all  in  fairly  good  preservation  and  form- 
ing altogether  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  fifteenth 
century  Castles  uow  to  be  seen  in  Scotland. 

At  Dunblane  is  the  fine  Cathedral  built  by  Bishop 
Clement,  and  the  tower  of  a  twelfth  century  church, 
which  he  found  in  ruins  when  he  came  to  Dunblane 
as  its  Bishop  in  1233.  This  earlier  building  was  put 
up  when  David  I.  established  the  See  on  the  founda- 
tion of  a  Pictish  church  of  the  seventh  century.  At 
the  Reformation  the  Cathedral  was  ruined  and  its 
beautiful  nave  had  remained  roofless  and  forlorn  for 
three  hundred  years,  when  in  1892  a  thorough  restora- 
tion was  carried  out.  In  the  choir,  which  has  been 
used  since  the  Reformation  as  a  parish  church,  there 
is  some  fine  carved  woodwork,  which  by  a  happy 
chance  escaped  the  general  destruction  of  such  objects 


372     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

at  the  Reformation.  There,  too,  are  the  graves  of 
Lady  Margaret  Drummond,  James  TWs  mistress,  and 
her  two  sisters,  who  were  poisoned  at  Drummond 
Castle.  The  blue-stone  slabs  that  formerly  marked 
these  graves  were  removed  in  1817  and  are  now  at 
the  entrance  to  the  choir. 

Dunblane  was  chosen  by  "  the  good  Bishop  Leigh- 
ton  "  for  his  See  as  being  the  smallest  and  poorest  in 
Scotland.  He  held  it  from  1661  to  1670,  when  he 
was  made  Archbishop  of  Glasgow.  His  library, 
which  he  left  to  the  town  of  Dunblane,  occupies  a 
house  built  to  receive  it,  near  the  entrance  to  the 
churchyard ;  and  a  shaded  walk  near  the  river,  where 
he  was  wont  to  pace  back  and  forth,  goes  still  by  the 
name  of  the  Bishop's  Walk.  To  the  southwest  of 
the  Cathedral  are  the  scanty  remains  of  the  Bishop's 
Palace. 

A  house  in  the  town — Balhaldie — Close  is  said  to 
be  the  one  occupied  by  Prince  Charlie  on  his  advance 
from  Perth  to  Edinburgh  on  September  11,  1745; 
while  the  Sheriffrnuir,  to  the  east  of  Dunblane,  is  the 
scene  of  that  battle  of  the  '15  which  both  sides 
thought  they  had  won.  Owing  to  the  nature  of  the 
ground,  neither  side  could  see  the  other,  and  when 
the  Highlanders  under  the  Earl  of  Mar  and  the  Gov- 
ernment troops  under  Argyll  charged,  they  all  but 
missed  each  other  and  each  right  flank  swept  on  to 
victory. 

Crieff,  as  the  seat  of  the  criminal  courts  of  the 


PERTH. 


373 


Stewards  of  Strathearn,  was  the  scene  of  executions, 
and  thus  was  full  of  unpleasant  associations  for  the 
Highlanders.  This  is  the  reason  given  for  their 
burning  it  (in  the  ?15)  to  the  last  stick  and  stone.  It 
had  been  rebuilt  however  twenty  years  later,  and 
there  Prince  Charles  reviewed  his  troops  on  the 
retreat  to  Inverness  (February,  1746),  when  he  spent 
two  nights  at  Lord  John  Drummond' s  place,  Fairn- 
ton,  now  Ferntower,  in  the  neighborhood.1 

Ten  miles  east  of  Crieff  is  Methven,  where  in 
1306,  three  months  after  his  coronation,  Bruce  was 
badly  defeated  by  the  English  under  the  Earl  of 
Pembroke ;  and  three  miles  further  on  is  Tipper- 
muir  or  Tibbermore,  where  Montrose  on  September  1, 
1644,  won  his  first  great  victory  over  the  Covenant- 
ers, whose  greatly  superior,  but  unorganized  force 
was  commanded  by  Lord  Elcho. 

Three  miles  south  of  Crieff  is  Drummond  Castle, 
formerly  the  seat  of  the  Earls  of  Perth,  the  chiefs  of 
the  Drummonds.  The  founder  of  the  family  is  said 
to  have  been  a  Hungarian  noble,  who  came  to  Scot- 
land in  the  train  of  St.  Margaret,  and  received  from 
Malcolm  Caennmor  the  lands  of  Drymen  or  Drum- 
mond, near  Loch  Lomond.  A  descendant  of  this 
Hungarian,  Malcolm  Drummond,  received  his  Perth- 
shire lands  from  Robert  Bruce  as  a  reward  for  his 
services  at  Bannockburn.  It  was  he  who  advised  the 
use  of  the  concealed  calthorps,  which  utterly  baffled 

1  As  noted  by  Scott  in  Waverley. 


37-1     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


the  English  cavalry  and  contributed  largely  to  the 
victory.  This  service  is  commemorated  by  the  cele- 
brated Drummond  motto,  "  Gang  Warily/'  Mal- 
colm's daughter  was  the  second  wife  of  David  II., 
and  his  grand-daughter  was  the  Queen  of  Robert  III. 

Drummond  Castle  was  built  in  1491  by  the  twelfth 
in  descent  from  the  founder  of  the  family,  and  it  was 
much  visited  by  Kings  and  Queens,  especially  by 
James  IV.,  who  there  had  a  liason  with  a  daughter 
of  the  house.  This  lady,  with  her  two  sisters,  was 
mysteriously  poisoned  at  the  Castle  in  1502,  in  order, 
it  was  said,  to  put  an  end  to  an  infatuation  that  pre- 
vented the  King  from  marrying. 

Cromwell  battered  it  down  in  1650,  but  in  1715  it 
was  rebuilt  and  strengthened,  to  serve  as  a  Govern- 
ment stronghold  and  garrison. 

Prince  Charlie  spent  a  night  at  the  Castle  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1746,  on  his  retreat  to  the  North  ;  and  shortly 
after  this  the  Jacobite  Duchess  of  Perth  levelled  most 
of  the  Castle  to  the  ground,  fearing  that  it  might 
again  be  used  for  a  Government  garrison  ;  yet  Prince 
Charlie's  room  was  not  entirely  demolished.  Early 
in  the  nineteenth  century  the  Castle  was  again  rebuilt. 
It  was  visited  by  Queen  Victoria  in  1842,  when  the 
Prince  Charlie  room  was  allotted  to  Prince  Albert  as 
a  dressing-room.  The  Castle  is  now  the  property  of 
the  Earl  of  Ancaster,  inherited  through  his  Drum- 
mond mother. 

Six  miles  south  of  Drummond  Castle,  near  Green- 


PEKTH. 


375 


loaning  Railway  Station,  is  Ardoch,  where  are  the 
remains  of  the  most  famous  Roman  camp  in  Scotland, 
placed  there  to  bridle  the  Northern  Caledonians, 
whom  the  Romans  could  however  never  subdue. 

Fifteen  miles  east  by  railway  is  Forteviot,  where 
on  the  Halyhill  Malcolm  Caennmor  had  a  tower, 
and  where  by  a  certain  tradition  he  was  born,  the 
natural  son  of  King  Duncan  and  the  miller's  daugh- 
ter of  Forteviot. 

Dupplin  Castle,  a  modern  mansion  belonging  to  the 
Earl  of  Kinnoull,  is  two  miles  northeast  of  Forteviot. 
Near  it  was  fought  the  battle  of  Dupplin  on  August 
12,  1332. 

Edward  Balliol,  son  of  King  John  Balliol,  had 
obtained  an  English  army  from  Edward  III.,  and 
joined  by  some  Scottish  adherents,  he  advanced  north 
to  subjugate  the  kingdom.  At  Dupplin  he  was 
encountered  by  an  army  fighting  for  Bruce's  son, 
King  David  II.,  then  a  boy  of  nine.  The  Scots 
were  completely  defeated,  and  their  leader,  the  Earl 
of  Mar,  was  killed.  Edward  Balliol  was  crowned  at 
Scone  six  weeks  later,  but  his  triumph  was  short- 
lived. "  Two  months  and  twenty-two  days  later  "  he 
fled  to  England  from  Annan,  with  "  one  leg  booted  and 
the  other  naked."  His  brother  Henry  was  killed, 
and  after  this  but  little  is  heard  of  the  Balliols  in 
Scotland. 

Six  miles  by  railway  northeast  of  Forteviot  lies 
the  town  of  Perth.    Although  anciently  a  place  of 


376     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

great  importance,  the  residence  of  Kings,  the  seat  of 
Parliaments,  and  the  home  of  splendid  ecclesiastical 
foundations,  but  cme  ancient  building  of  historical 
interest  is  now  to  be  found  in  the  town.  This  is  the 
parish  church  of  St.  John  Baptist,  from  which  is 
derived  the  name  St.  Johnstown,  by  which  the  town 
was  at  one  time  known.  Of  the  church  which  was 
standing  in  the  twelfth  century  nothing  is  now  left, 
the  oldest  parts  of  the  existing  building  dating  from 
about  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Since 
then  there  have  been  many  additions  and  restorations, 
and  it  was  a  very  magnificent  church  in  all  its  ap- 
pointments when  John  Knox  made  there  (11th  of 
May,  1559)  his  famous  arraignment  of  "idolatry." 
At  the  close  of  the  sermon  (according  to  his  own 
account)  a  priest,  preparing  to  say  Mass,  "would  open 
up  a  glorious  tabernacle,"  a  youth  who  stood  by  pro- 
testing loudly  ;  a  scuffle  ensued  between  the  two,  in 
the  course  of  which  an  image  standing  on  the  high 
altar  was  broken.  That  was  the  signal :  instantly  the 
"  raschall  multitude,''  as  Knox  calls  them,  that  stood 
by,  sympathizing  with  the  boy,  and  having  Knox's 
vehement  and  burning  words  still  sounding  in  their 
ears,  rushed  upon  the  altars,  and  in  a  marvellously 
short  space  of  time  not  St.  John's  only,  but  the  Grey 
and  Black  Friars'  Monasteries,  and  the  Charter 
House  or  Carthusian  Monastery  as  well,  were  utterly 
despoiled.  "These  things  reported  to  the  Queen 
Regent,"  says  Knox,  "  she  was  so  enraged  that  she 


PERTH. 


377 


did  vow  utterly  to  destroy  St.  Johnstown,  man, 
woman  and  child,  and  to  consume  the  same  by  fire, 
and  thereafter  to  salt  it,  in  sign  of  a  perpetual  deso- 
lation." 

It  was  in  the  Black  Friars'  Monastery  that  the 
tragedy  of  James  I.'s  death  occurred.  His  uncom- 
promising attitude  towards  the  holders  of  doubtful 
claims  to  feudal  territories  had  raised  him  up  ene- 
mies among  some  of  the  powerful  nobles,  and  when  a 
plot  was  formed  to  murder  him,  a  convenient  instru- 
ment was  found  in  the  outlawed  Sir  Robert  Graham, 
then  lurking  in  the  Highlands.  The  King,  notwith- 
standing signs,  portents  and  even  warnings,  had  come 
to  Perth  for  the  Christmas  festivities.  On  the  night 
of  the  20th  of  February  (1437),  after  some  guests 
had  left,  he  stood  before  the  fire,  clad  in  a  chamber 
robe,  chatting  with  the  Queen  and  some  of  her  ladies ; 
suddenly  ominous  sounds  were  heard  below,  and  it 
was  found  that  a  party  of  men  were  forcing  their  way 
into  the  place.  The  closely  barred  windows  offering 
no  means  of  escape,  the  King  told  the  women  to 
secure  the  doors,  prised  up  a  piece  of  the  flooring  and 
leaped  into  the  vault  below.  Meantime  it  was  dis- 
covered that  the  bolts  had  been  tampered  with,  and 
in  desperation  a  devoted  daughter  of  the  house  of 
Douglas  thrust  her  own  arm  through  the  staple  of  the 
door.  Easily  breaking  this  feeble  barrier  however,  the 
conspirators,  with  three  hundred  Highlanders  at  their 
backs,  rushed  in.    The  King  was  still  in  the  vault 


378     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

(from  which  he  might  have  escaped  had  he  not,  only 
a  few  days  earlier,  had  the  exit  closed  to  prevent  his 
tennis  balls  from  falling  through).  For  some  little 
time  the  search  was  unsuccessful,  then  Sir  Robert 
Graham  noticed  an  uneven ness  in  the  flooring,  lifted  the 
plank,  and  thrusting  in  a  light,  called  out  savagely, 
"  Sirs,  the  bride  is  found  for  whom  we  have  sought 
and  carolled  all  night."  As  one  after  another  of  the 
conspirators  leaped  down,  James,  though  unarmed, 
struggled  with  them,  and  for  a  brief  space  kept  them 
at  bay ;  then  Graham  fell  upon  him  with  his  sword, 
and  after  that  with  swords  and  daggers  they  dispatched 
him.  Seven  of  the  murderers  died  for  their  share 
in  the  deed,  six  of  them,  notably  Walter  Stewart,  Earl 
of  Atholl,  uncle  of  the  King,  with  accompaniments  of 
horrible  and  indescribable  tortures. 

It  was  in  the  time  of  James's  father,  Robert  III., 
that  the  singular  combat  took  place  on  the  North 
Inch,  now  a  large  public  park,  described  by  Sir  Walter 
Scott  in  The  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  The  rival  Clans  of 
Chattan  and  Kay  had  agreed  to  settle  their  differences 
by  a  fight  to  the  death  of  thirty  on  each  side.  On  the 
eve  of  the  battle  one  Chattan  man  deserted,  and  his 
place  was  filled  by  a  small  and  misshapen,  but  pow- 
erful armorer  of  the  city,  who,  fighting  merely  for 
pay,  was  nevertheless  one  of  the  eleven  survivors  (all 
severely  wounded)  on  the  Clan  Chattan  side.  One 
Kay  only  escaped  alive. 

On  the  site  of  the  present  county  buildings  once 


PERTH. 


379 


stood  the  splendid  town  house  of  the  Ruthvens,  Earls 
of  Gowrie,  the  scene  of  that  historical  event  usually 
referred  to  as  the  "mysterious"  Gowrie  Conspiracy. 
William  Ruthven,  a  boy  at  the  time,  had  neverthe- 
less been  present  when  his  father,  dragging  himself 
from  his  death-bed  for  the  purpose,  directed  the 
murder  of  Riccio  at  Holyrood.  The  son,  who 
had  meantime  been  created  Earl  of  Gowrie,  took 
part  in  the  abduction  of  James  VI.  and  his  detention 
in  Ruthven  Castle,  near  Perth,  in  August,  1582 
(the  Raid  of  Ruthven,  or  First  Gowrie  Conspiracy,  it 
is  called),  the  conspirator  aim  being  to  compel  the 
King  to  dismiss  his  favorite  Arran.  For  this  offence 
the  Earl  was  pardoned,  but  when  he  later  became 
implicated  in  another  plot,  he  was  tried  for  treason 
and  executed.  His  forfeiture  was  however  reversed, 
and  some  years  later  his  son  John  inherited  the  title 
and  lands.  The  new  Earl,  after  spending  some  years 
abroad,  returned  to  Scotland  and  was  living  at  Gowrie 
House,  Perth,  when,  on  August  o,  1600,  his  brother 
inveigled  King  James  there  on  the  pretence  of  showing 
him  a  pot  of  gold  pieces,  said  to  have  been  found  in 
the  possession  of  a  suspicious  character.  The  Earl 
met  the  King  with  a  suitable  escort,  and  took  him  to 
his  house,  and  after  supper  he  was  conducted  apart  to 
a  small  room  to  see  the  treasure.  Instead  of  producing 
it  however,  Ruthven  began  to  threaten  the  King  and 
abase  him  for  the  execution  of  his  father;  while  a 
mysterious  armed  man  stood  silently  by.    There  was 


380     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  KOMANTIC. 

a  struggle,  the  King  called  loudly  for  help,  armed 
attendants  rushed  in  and  in  a  few  moments  both 
Alexander  Ruthven  and  his  brother  the  Earl  were 
killed.  Meantime  the  alarm  had  spread,  but  the 
towns-people  took  the  side  of  the  Gowries,  the  Earl 
being  their  Provost  and  very  popular.  Crowds 
rushed  through  the  streets  howling  "  Green-coats,1  we 
shall  have  amends  of  you  !  Ye  shall  pay  for  it.  Give 
us  our  Provost !"  and  even  such  cries  as  "  Come  down, 
come  down,  thou  son  of  Seignor  Davie ;  thou  hast 
slain  a  better  man  than  thyself!"  The  situation  was 
becoming  critical  when  the  magistrates  finally  ap- 
peared on  the  scene  and  succeeded  in  rescuing  the 
King. 

Every  one  connected  with  the  House  of  Gowrie 
was  from  thenceforth  hunted  down  and  persecuted. 
Their  estates  were  forfeited,  their  arms  cancelled,  their 
name  abolished  and  any  one  who  had  borne  it  for- 
bidden to  approach  within  ten  miles  of  the  royal 
presence;  and  yet  there  have  not  been  wanting  those 
who  have  warmly  (though  very  unconvincingly)  main- 
tained that  the  Ruthvens,  instead  of  being  conspira- 
tors against  the  person  of  the  King,  were  themselves 
the  victims  of  a  plot ! 

The  neighboring  nobles  were  greatly  elated  at  the 
downfall  of  the  House  of  Gowrie,  whose  possessions 
and  influence  had  increased  to  a  degree  that  threat- 
ened to  overshadow  all  others,  and  it  is  alleged  that 

1  The  color  worn  by  the  King's  servants  on  hunting  expeditions. 


Site  of  the  Gowrie  House,  Perth 


PERTH. 


381 


the  Earl  of  Atholl  came  to  Perth  and  executed  a  pas  seul 
before  Gowrie  House  in  sheer  glee  at  their  misfortunes. 

Perth  was  associated  with  both  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury Jacobite  Risings.  Here,  at  the  town  cross  (sold  for 
£5  in  1765),  the  "old  Pretender,"  the  Chevalier  de 
St.  George,  was  proclaimed  under  the  title  of  James 
VIII.  in  1715,  and  it  was  here  that  he  made  such  a 
painful  impression  on  the  Highlanders,  when  some 
months  later  he  met  his  army  in  person  for  the  first 
time.  "  I  must  not  conceal,"  writes  one  of  them, 
"  that  when  we  saw  the  man  whom  they  called  our 
King  we  found  ourselves  not  at  all  animated  by  his 
presence,  and  if  he  was  disappointed  with  us,  we  were 
tenfold  more  so  in  him." 

Thirty  years  later  (September  4, 1745)  James  VIII. 
was  again  proclaimed  at  the  Cross  of  Perth,  when 
Prince  Charlie  spent  six  active  days  there  receiving 
reinforcements  and  supplies.1 

About  a  mile  northeast  of  Perth,  in  Scone  Palace 
Grounds,  stands  the  market  cross  that  marks  the  site 
of  old  Scone,  the  ancient  Pictish  capital,  and  the 
place  where  the  Stone  of  Destiny  was  kept.  Shorn 
of  the  legends  that  surround  it  it  appears  probable 
that  this  stone  first  came  to  be  looked  upon  with  rev- 
erence from  having  been  used  as  an  altar,  possibly  by 
St.  Boniface,  an  early  missionary. 

1  "  Traditionally  the  Prince  occupied  Lord  Stormouth's  house, 
where  the  Union  Bank  now  stands."  Itinerary  of  Prince  Charles 
Edward  Stuart,  W.  B.  Blaikie. 


382     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

It  stood  on  the  Mote  Hill  and  was  not  unlike  other 
stones  of  the  neighborhood.  From  the  time  of  Mal- 
colm IV.,  crowned  in  1153,  Scottish  coronations  took 
place  here,  except  when  the  sovereigns  were  infants.1 

Down  to  the  time  of  John  Balliol  (crowned  1292) 
the  Scottish  monarchs  received  the  crown  seated  on 
the  Stone  of  Destiny,  but  it  was  carried  off  to  Lon- 
don by  Edward  I.  in  1296  and  has  never  been  re- 
turned. It  now  however  lies  beneath  the  wooden 
coronation  chair  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  thus  the 
sovereigns  of  the  United  Kingdom  are  once  more 
crowned  seated  on  this  ancient  relic. 

Robert  Bruce  was  the  first  King  who  was  crowned 
at  Scone  (March,  1306)  without  the  celebrated  stone. 
The  arrangements  were  made  in  hot  haste.  A  small 
circlet  of  gold  was  prepared,  as  King  Edward  had 
carried  off  the  ancient  crown.  It  was  the  hereditary 
duty  of  the  Earl  of  Fife  to  place  the  crown  on  the 
sovereign's  head.  The  Earl  refused  to  attend  ;  so,  in 
order  that  some  descendant  of  the  loyal  Macduff 
should  perform  the  office,  the  EarPs  sister  Isabella, 
although  the  wife  of  John  Comyn,  Earl  of  Buchan, 
Bruce's  mortal  enemy,  hurried  to  Scone  to  perform 
this  service.  For  her  kind  office  the  Countess,  who 
fell  into  Edward's  hands  the  same  year,  was  confined 
at  Berwick  in  a  lattice- work  cage  until  1313. 

1  James  II.,  aged  six  years,  was  crowned  at  Holyrood;  James  V., 
aged  seventeen  months,  Mary,  less  than  a  year  old,  and  James  VI., 
aged  thirteen  months,  were  crowned  at  Stirling. 


PERTH. 


383 


Charles  II.  was  the  last  King  crowned  at  Scone — 
by  the  Covenanting  Marquis  of  Argyll,  on  January 
1,  1651. 

The  old  Augustinian  Abbey,  founded  by  Alexander 
I.  in  1115,  and  the  Royal  Palace  were  destroyed  by  a 
"rascal  multitude"  from  Perth  and  Dundee  in  1559, 
in  spite  of  the  special  intervention  of  Lord  James 
Stewart  (afterwards  the  Regent  Moray)  and  John 
Knox,  who  was  never  a  church  destroyer.  He  could 
not  forgive  the  Perth  Reformers  for  this  outrage : 
"  Whereat,"  he  says,  u  no  small  number  of  us  were 
offended  that  patiently  we  could  not  speak  to  any  that 
were  of  Dundee  and  St.  Johnstown  [Perth]." 

Scone  subsequently  came  into  the  possession  of  the 
Lords  Stormouth,  who  built  a  house  or  palace,  in 
which  the  Chevalier  de  St.  George  stayed  in  1716  and 
which  Prince  Charles  visited  one  morning  in  1745. 
This  second  palace  has  given  place  to  a  modern  castel- 
lated mansion  belonging  to  the  present  Earl  of  Mans- 
field, the  descendant  of  the  Lords  Stormouth. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

ARGYLL,  BUTE  AND  THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS. 

In  the  County  of  Argyll  we  come  to  one  of  the 
most  romantically  beautiful  districts  of  Scotland. 
What  district  of  Scotland,  it  may  indeed  be  asked,  is 
not  both  romantic  and  beautiful — each  after  its  own 
fashion  and  kind?  Here  however  is  a  country  of 
islands  and  lochs,  of  lofty  mountains  and  remote 
glens,  of  bays  and  inlets,  rivers  and  firths — deep  arms 
of  the  Atlantic  that  penetrate  into  the  very  heart  of 
the  country  and  divide  its  northern  half  in  twain. 

It  is  said  that  when  during  the  great  French  war,  as 
a  measure  of  precaution,  the  Lords  Lieutenant  of  coun- 
ties were  directed  in  times  of  danger  to  have  all  cattle 
driven  twelve  miles  inland,  there  was  difficulty  in 
finding  any  parts  of  Argyll  so  distant  from  the  coast. 

The  early  history  of  these  districts  is  involved 
in  obscurity.  There  is  a  tradition  of  the  three 
sons  of  Eric,  an  Irish  chief,  who,  crossing  from 
their  own  land,  established  colonies.  Fergus  settled 
in  Kintyre,  Angus  on  the  islands  of  Islay  and  Jura, 
and  Lorn,  pushing  further  north,  occupied  the  terri- 
tory still  called  by  his  name. 

With  the  conquest  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Southern 
384 


ARGYLL. 


385 


Picts  by  the  Scottish  King,  Kenneth  MacAlpin,  in 
the  ninth  century  we  reach  a  period  of  more  reliable 
records.  Then,  according  to  Browne,1  the  Western 
Islands  and  Argyll  were  inhabited  by  a  race  of  Scot- 
tish rovers.  They  were  termed  Oirir  Gael — that  is  the 
Gael  inhabiting  the  coast  lands,  and  from  this  name 
Argyll  is  derived.  Gradually  however,  by  constantly 
recurring  invasions  of  bands  of  Scandinavian  pirates, 
these  acquired  the  supremacy,  and  for  a  considerable 
period  the  western  districts  acknowledged  the  rule  of 
the  King  of  Norway.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the 
Norwegians  were  driven  out ;  the  decisive  battle  in 
which  Haco,  King  of  Norway,  was  defeated  at  Largs 
in  Ayr  occurred  in  1263. 

A  Celtic  chief,  Somerled,  now  possessed  himself  of 
Argyll  and  of  the  southern  half  of  the  Islands.  On 
his  death,  at  the  battle  of  Renfrew  in  1164,  his  two 
sons  divided  the  inheritance,  and  in  the  traditions  of 
the  West  Highlands  and  Islands  most  of  the  western 
clans  trace  their  origin  back  to  one  or  the  other  of 
these  two.  Dougal  got  the  district  of  Lorn,  and  his 
descendant,  Macdougal  of  Dunolly,  survives  to  own 
that  ancestral  property  to  this  day.  The  Macdougals 
however  fought  against  Bruce  in  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  thus,  when  the  National  Party  tri- 
umphed, they  lost  their  influence  and  most  of  their 
possessions. 

The  elder  son  of  Ranald,  or  Reginald,  Somerled's 

1  History  of  the  Highlands,  by  James  Browne. 
Vol.  II.— 25 


386     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

other  son,  was  named  Donald,  from  whom  the  Clan 
Macdonald,  known  down  to  his  time  as  "  Clan  Colla," 
takes  its  name.  Two  of  Ranald's  great-grandsons 
took  opposite  sides  in  the  national  struggle.  Alex- 
ander, the  elder,  fiercely  opposed  Bruce,  but  he  was 
captured  and  imprisoned,  and  after  that  he  and  his 
family  disappear  from  history.  His  brother  Angus, 
on  the  contrary,  lent  the  King  every  aid  in  his  power. 
It  was  he  who  commanded  the  right  wing  at  Bannock- 
burn  and  obtained  for  the  Macdonalds  that  post  of 
honor  in  perpetuity.1 

When  Bruce  came  to  his  kingdom  Angus  received 
all  the  domains  of  his  father,  and  on  his  death  these 
were  inherited  by  his  son  John,  the  first  titular  Lord 
of  the  Isles.  John  had  married  Euphemia  or  Amy, 
the  sister  and  heir  of  another  descendant  of  Ranald, 
but  in  1350  he  divorced  her  and  married  Margaret,  a 
daughter  of  Robert,  the  High  Steward  of  Scotland, 
afterwards  Robert  II. 

Although  John  had  several  sons  by  his  first  wife, 
the  Lordship  of  the  Isles  went  to  Donald,  his  eldest 
son  by  his  second  wife.  Donald  married  the  heiress 
of  the  great  northern  Earldom  of  Ross,  which  he 
claimed  in  right  of  his  wife.  He  frequently  visited 
the  English  court  and  made  treaties  with  the  English 
Kings,  Richard  II.  and  Henry  IV.  His  son  Alex- 
ander rebelled  against  James  I.,  but  was  defeated  by 

1  Angus  Macdonald  is  the  hero  of  Scott's  poem,  "  The  Lord  of 
the  Isles." 


ARGYLL. 


387 


the  King  at  Lochaber.  His  son  John  was  the  fourth 
and  last  Earl  of  Koss  and  Lord  of  the  Isles.  Too 
powerful  to  be  treated  as  an  ordinary  subject,  he  was 
sometimes  in  rebellion,  sometimes  fighting  on  the  side 
of  King  James  II.,  sometimes  treating  with  Edward 
IV.  as  an  independent  Prince.  On  his  death  in  1498 
without  legitimate  children  the  great  united  Clan  of 
Macdonald  was  broken  up. 

The  downfall  of  the  Macdonalds  was  a  cause  of  huge 
profit  to  a  rising  and  rival  clan,  the  Campbells.  The 
origin  of  this  clan  has  never  been  clearly  determined. 
The  Seannachies  or  bards  trace  the  Siol  Diarniid 
(the  race  of  the  "Children  of  the  Mist")  as  Lords 
of  Lochow  back  to  the  year  404,  but  the  first  of  the 
Campbells  of  whom  anything  is  certainly  known 
is  Gillespie  Campbell,1  who  married  the  heiress  of 
Lochow  in  Central  Argyllshire  towards  the  close  of 
the  twelfth  century.  The  "exact  position  of  Lochow 
is  not  surely  known,  but  it  is  generally  supposed  to 
have  been  on  the  slopes  of  Ben  Cruachan,  by  the  north- 
ern shores  of  Loch  Awe,  which  is  possibly  a  mod- 
ern form  of  the  word.  "  Cruachan "  has  ever  been 
the  war-cry  of  the  Campbell  clan,  and  the  ancient 
proverb,  u  It's  a  far  cry  to  Lochow,"  is  still  constantly 
used  in  referring  to  an  enterprise  either  impossible  or 
of  enormous  difficulty. 

1  "  Gillespie"  means  in  Gaelic  the  gillie  or  servant  of  the  Bishop, 
and  in  English  is  rendered  as  Archibald.  "  Campbell "  means  in 
Gaelic  crooked  mouth. 


388     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Gillespie  Campbell's  great-gran dson,  Sir  Colin,  be- 
came, by  conquest  of  his  neighbors,  so  powerful 
and  wealthy  that  he  was  termed  in  Gaelic  More — that 
is  Great,  and  from  his  day  the  chief  of  the  Campbells 
has  been  designated  by  his  clansmen  The  son  of  Colin 
the  Great,  erroneously  rendered  MacCallum  More.1 

From  Sir  Colin's  second  son  are  descended  the 
Campbells,  Earls  of  Loudoun,  while  the  eldest  son, 
Xiel  or  Nigel,  after  loyally  supporting  Bruce  through- 
out the  War  of  Independence,  was  given  large  grants 
of  land  and  the  hand  of  the  King's  sister  in  marriage. 

"  MacCallum  More  after  MacCallum  More,"  says 
Macaulay,  "  with  unwearied,  unscrupulous  and  unre- 
lenting ambition,  annexed  mountain  after  mountain 
and  island  after  island  to  the  original  domains  of  his 
house.  Some  tribes  had  been  expelled  from  their 
territory,  some  compelled  to  pay  tribute,  some  incor- 
porated with  their  conquerors." 

By  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  chief 
of  the  Campbells  had  come  to  be  reckoned  among  the 
wealthiest  men  in  Scotland,  and  as  such  was  named  a 
hostage  for  the  payment  of  the  sums  alleged  to  have 

1  This  name  is  one  of  the  celebrated  historical  mistakes.  It  is 
said  to  have  been  made  first  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  Rob  Roy  and 
often  repeated.  "MacCallum  More"  means  the  son  of  the  great 
Callum  or  Malcolm,  while  the  Gaelic  word  for  the  chief  of  the 
Campbells  was  "  MacCailan  More,"  the  son  of  the  great  Colin. 
When  the  error  was  pointed  out  to  Sir  Walter,  he  merely  laughed 
and  said  it  was  his  nickname  for  the  Duke  of  Argyll.  The  error 
has  long  since  passed  into  the  language,  and  it  is  now  hopeless  to  try 
to  correct  it. 


ARGYLL. 


389 


been  expended  for  the  maintenance  of  James  L  when 
a  prisoner  in  England.  He  was  created  Lord  Camp- 
bell and  married  a  daughter  of  Robert  Stewart,  Duke 
of  Albany  (brother  of  Robert  III.).  The  country 
lying  along  the  north  of  Holy  Loch  in  the  Firth  of 
Clyde  had  belonged  at  one  time  to  the  Lamonts,  but 
they,  having  been  ousted  by  the  Campbells,  Sir  Dun- 
can, first  Lord  Campbell,  selected  the  site  of  a  former 
Coltimban  establishment  at  Kilmun  whereon  to  found 
a  collegiate  house  for  a  provost  and  six  prebendaries. 
Tins  was  in  1442  ;  the  founder  himself  was  interred 
there  and  Kilmim  has  ever  since  been  the  burial-place 
of  the  chiefs  of  the  Campbells.  Thither  was  brought 
the  body  of  the  Marquis  of  Argyll,  beheaded  in  Edin- 
burgh in  1661,  and  there  were  laid  the  remains  of  the 
late  Duke  of  Argyll,  who  died  in  April,  1900. 

All  that  is  left  to-day  of  Sir  Duncan's  building  is  a 
half  ruined  tower,  probably  intended  to  serve  as  a 
place  of  strength  to  be  fortified  in  times  of  danger. 
A  modern  church  now  occupies  the  site  of  the  old 
church  to  the  east  of  the  tower,  and  adjoining  it  is  a 
mausoleum  containing  the  tombs  of  the  Argvlls. 

Lord  Campbell's  grandson,  Sir  Colin,  was  created 
Earl  of  Argyll  by  James  II.  (1457).  He  married  the 
heiress  of  John  Stewart,  Lord  of  Lorn,  whose  father, 
a  cadet  of  the  Stewart  family,  had  married  the  daugh- 
ter and  heiress  of  the  ancient  Celtic  Lords  of  Lorn. 
Though  the  Earl  of  Argyll  inherited  the  lands  of 
Lorn,  he  did  not  inherit  the  title,  which  went  to  an 


390      SCOTLAND.  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


uncle  of  his  bride.  With  this  uncle  he  accordingly 
made  an  exchange  of  lands,  and  arranged,  with  the 
King's  permission,  that  the  Stewart  should  bear  the 
title  of  Lord  Innermeath.  while  the  proud  title  of 
Lorn  went  to  the  Campbell  family,  with  whom  it  still 
remains.  From  the  day  of  this  first  Earl  the  house 
of  Argyll  has  ranked  among  the  most  powerful  in  the 
land. 

His  descendant,  Archibald,  fourth  Earl  of  Argyll, 
was  one  of  the  first  of  the  great  Scottish  Peers  to  join 
the  Protestant  party.  Notwithstanding  this,  we  find 
his  son  Archibald  figuring  at  the  outset  of  his  career 
as  a  staunch  adherent  of  the  Queen  Regent,  Mary  of 
Guise.  He,  his  half-brother  and  successor,  and  the 
latter's  son,  followed  devious  courses  in  their  political 
careers,  now  taking  one  side  in  the  struggle  between 
the  sovereign  and  the  people,  now  the  other.  The 
last,  who  was  Archibald,  seventh  Earl  of  Argyll,  was 
conspicuous  in  his  antagonism  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
party  in  Scotland ;  but  having  married  as  his  second 
wife  a  lady  of  the  English  Roman  Catholic  family  of 
Cornwallis,  and  having  taken  a  military  command 
under  Philip  III.  of  Spain,  he  joined  the  Roman 
Church  and  took  an  active  part  in  the  Spanish  cam- 
paign against  the  Protestants  of  the  Netherlands. 
His  son  by  his  first  wife  had  meanwhile  received  a 
strict  Scots  Presbyterian  education.  The  King, 
Charles  I.,  anxious  to  win  to  his  interests  the  future 
head  of  this  powerful  house,  called  Lord  Lorn,  while 


ARGYLL. 


391 


still  a  very  young  man,  to  be  a  member  of  his  Privy 
Council,  showed  him  other  marks  of  distinguished 
favor,  and  finally,  by  citing  a  penal  law  against 
Roman  Catholics,  forced  the  Earl  to  resign  his  estates 
to  his  son,  reserving  only  an  income  sufficient  for  his 
own  requirements. 

The  father  and  son  had  long  been  on  ill  terms,  and 
when  this  transaction  was  concluded  in  London,  in  the 
presence  of  the  King,  the  old  Earl  addressed  to  him 
some  bitter  words  of  warning.  "Sir,"  said  he,  "I 
must  know  this  young  man  better  than  you  can  do. 
You  have  brought  me  low  that  you  may  raise  him, 
which  I  doubt  not  you  will  live  to  repent ;  for  he  is  a 
man  of  craft,  subtlety  and  falsehood,  and  can  love  no 
man,  and  if  ever  he  finds  it  in  his  power  to  do  you 
mischief,  he  will  be  sure  to  do  it." 

Charles  had  frequent  cause  to  remember  these 
words,  and  yet  to  the  very  end  of  his  life  he  deluded 
himself  with  the  belief  that  Argyll  was  or  could  be 
made  his  friend.  He  created  him  Marquis  in  1641, 
and  perseveringly  showed  him  marks  of  his  favor  and 
confidence.  The  rivalry  between  the  Marquis  of  Argyll 
and  Montrose,  and  the  circumstances  of  the  former's 
execution  in  Edinburgh  (1661),  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  he  had  himself  put  the  crown  on  Charles  II.'s 
brow,  have  already  been  described.  His  titles  were 
attainted,  yet  the  Earldom,  though  not  the  Marquisatc, 
was  restored  to  his  son  and  successor,  Archibald,  who 
thus  became  ninth  Earl.    Although  he  fought  for 


392      SCOTLAND.  HISTORIC  A>'D  EOMA>~TTC. 


Charles  II.  at  Dunbar,  and  was  actually  in  prison  at 
the  time  of  the  Restoration,  this  Earl  was  attainted 
for  high  treason  in  1682,  for  refusing  to  take  the 
u  Test n  or  oath  acknowledging  the  King  as  supreme 
in  Church  as  well  as  State.  He  was  committed  to 
Edinburgh  Castle,  under  sentence  of  death,  but 
effected  his  escape  disguised  as  a  page,  holding  up 
the  train  of  his  daughter-in-law,  Lady  Sophia  Lind- 
say. After  three  years  passed  on  the  Continent,  he 
coinroanded  the  Scottish  expedition  in  Monmouth's 
rebellion,  was  captured  at  Inchinnan,  taken  to  Edin- 
burgh and  executed  under  the  old  sentence. 

His  son  Archibald,  tenth  Earl,  went  to  Holland 
after  his  father  s  death  and  placed  himself  under  the 
protection  of  the  Prince  of  Orange.  The  Revolution 
consequently  restored  hi-  house  to  all  its  formes 
weight  and  influence.  He  was  created  Marquis  of 
Kintyre  and  Lorn  and  Duke  of  Argyll  in  1701, 
besides  receiving  a  string  of  other  titles  and  honors. 
HLs  son  was  the  eminent  Duke  of  Argyll  and  Green- 
wich, who  exerted  his  influence  at  court  so  success- 
fully at  the  time  of  the  Porteous  Riot,  and  of  whoni 
Scott  gives  such  a  pleasing  picture  as  the  patron  of 
Jeannie  Deans  in  The  Heart  of  Afid loth  Urn.  It  is 
t  -Id  that  his  having  fallen  when  a  child  from  an 
upper  window  without  injury,  on  the  day  on  which 
his  grandfather  was  executed,  was  generally  accepted 
as  a  favorable  augury  of  his  future. 

His  brother  Archibald,  who  succeeded  him  as 


ARGYLL. 


393 


second  Duke,  conceived  the  dignified  old  Castle  of 
Inverary,  near  the  head  of  Loch  Fyne,  to  be  not 
sufficiently  grand  for  the  chief  seat  of  his  house  and 
tore  it  down.  On  the  site  he  built  the  present 
Castle,  a  large,  square  building  of  dark-blue  slate, 
having  round  towers  at  the  corners  and  a  tall  pavil- 
ion in  the  centre.  To  provide  money  for  this  taste- 
less change  the  Duke  sold  Duddingston,  an  estate 
near  Edinburgh,  inherited  from  his  grandmother,  the 
Duchess  of  Lauderdale. 

Dr.  Johnson  and  Boswell  visited  Inverary  in  the 
course  of  the  "Tour"  of  1773.  Dr.  Johnson  thought 
the  Castle  too  low,  but  was  nevertheless  much  im- 
pressed by  it.  "  What  I  admire  here/'  said  he,  "  is 
the  total  defiance  of  expense."  What  Boswell  ad- 
mired was  the  "  gay,  inviting  appearance  of  the  ladies- 
maids,  tripping  about  in  neat  morning  dresses."  In 
a  foot-note,  added  some  years  later,  he  wonders  that 
"  my  venerable  fellow-traveller  should  have  read  this 
passage  without  censuring  my  levity." 

Their  host  on  this  occasion,  John,  fifth  Duke  of 
Argyll,  treated  his  guests  with  great  distinction,  and 
lent  Dr.  Johnson  a  "stately  steed"  on  which  to 
pursue  his  journey.  His  Duchess  was  one  of  the 
famous  Gunning  sisters,  whom  Horace  Walpole  de- 
scribes as  "two  Irish  girls  of  no  fortune,  who  are 
declared  to  be  the  handsomest  women  alive.  .  .  . 
They  can't  walk  in  the  Park  or  go  to  Vauxhall  but 
such  mobs  follow  them  that  they  are  generally  driven 


394     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

away."  Maria,  the  elder,  married  Lord  Coventry ; 
her  sister  was  first  the  wife  of  the  Duke  of  Hamil- 
ton, and  afterwards  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll.  Her 
eldest  son  by  her  first  husband  was  the  young  Duke 
of  Hamilton,  who  succeeded  to  the  Douglas  title,  but 
who  lost  the  "  Douglas  cause."  1  Boswell  had  busied 
himself  as  a  champion  of  the  other  claimant,  and 
consequently  felt  somewhat  shy  about  meeting  the 
Duchess ;  and  not  without  reason,  for  when  he  was 
conducted  to  the  drawing-room  by  her  husband,  the 
lady — the  wife  of  two  Dukes  and  the  mother  of 
four  Dukes — was  so  ill-bred  as  entirely  to  ignore  his 
presence,  an  attitude  she  maintained  throughout  the 
visit,  though  showering  attentions  on  Dr.  Johnson  to 
a  degree  that  seems  quite  to  have  mollified  that 
usually  stern  philosopher  —  all  of  which  is  com- 
placently recorded  by  the  biographer. 

The  present  Duke  of  Argyll,  who  is  married  to 
the  Princess  Louise,  daughter  of  Queen  Victoria, 
succeeded  to  the  historic  title  on  the  death  of  his 
father  in  April,  1900. 

Castle  Lachlan,  on  the  east  shore  of  Loch  Fyne,  and 
Carrick  Castle,  built  on  a  rock  on  the  west  shore  of 
Loch  Goil,  are  good  examples  of  fifteenth  century 
keeps.  Between  Loch  Fyne  and  the  Firth  of  Clyde 
is  the  peninsular-shaped  district  of  Cowal,  so  called 
from  Comgall,  a  grandson  of  Fergus.  Here  are  the 
scanty  remains  of  Dunoon  Castle,  once   a  famous 

»  See  p.  64,  Vol.  II. 


BUTE. 


395 


stronghold  of  the  Stewards  of  Scotland,  and  possessed 
later  by  the  Argylls. 

At  the  southern  extremity  of  Cowal,  and  separating 
it  from  Bute,  are  the  picturesque  Kyles  of  Bute,  a 
deep  and  tortuous  channel  of  the  Firth  of  Clyde, 
shaped  like  a  horseshoe. 

The  County  of  Bute  includes  the  islands  of 
Bute  and  Arran  and  the  two  Cumbraes.  At  Rothe- 
say, its  principal  town,  are  the  ruins  of  a  very 
ancient  and  very  famous  Castle.  Of  Scandinavian 
origin,  the  Castle  of  Rothesay  was  taken  from  the 
Norwegians  after  the  battle  of  Largs,  and  was  a 
favorite  place  of  residence  of  the  early  Stewart  Kings. 
Robert  III.  created  his  eldest  son — David,  Earl  of 
Carrick — Duke  of  Rothesay  in  1398,1  taking  the  title 
from  this  Castle.  Ever  since  then  the  Dukedom  of 
Rothesay,  the  Principality  and  Stewardship  of  Scot- 
land, the  Barony  of  Renfrew,  the  Earldom  of 
Carrick,  and  the  Lordship  of  the  Isles  have  been 
held  by  the  eldest  son  and  heir  apparent  of  the 
sovereign.  Robert  III.  died  at  Dundonald  in  1406, 
on  learning  that  his  only  surviving  son  (afterwards 
James  I.)  had  been  made  prisoner  by  the  English. 

The  Castle  was  reduced  to  ruins  in  the  Monmouth 
rebellion  of  1685;  it  is  now,  and  most  of  the  Island 
of  Bute  as  well,  the  property  of  the  Marquis  of  Bute, 
who  is  descended  from  the  High  Stewards  of  Scot- 

1  Robert,  the  King's  brother,  was  created  Duke  of  Albany  at  the 
same  time.    These  were  the  first  Scottish  Dukes. 


396     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


land.  Sir  James  Stewart  was  created  Earl  of  Bute 
in  1703;  his  grandson  was  that  John  Earl  of  Bute 
who  obtained  such  ascendency  over  the  mother  of 
George  III.  He  was  that  King's  early  and  most 
unpopular  Prime  Minister,  satirized  by  the  Cockney 
wits  under  the  presentment  of  a  jack-boot. 

In  the  ruins  of  the  Abbey  Church  of  St.  Mary, 
west  of  the  town  of  Rothesay,  are  some  carved  tombs 
of  the  Stewart  family ;  and  their  seat,  Mountstuart, 
a  modern  Gothic  building,  is  some  miles  further  south. 

Anciently  the  people  of  Bute  were  called  "  Bran- 
dines,''  from  Brendan,  a  missionary  of  the  Irish  Church, 
who  crossed  the  seas  in  the  sixth  century  and  estab- 
lished missions  on  several  of  the  Western  Islands. 

In  the  southern  part  of  Bute,  in  a  spot  commanding 
a  lovely  view  across  the  Firth  of  Clyde  to  Arran, 
are  the  ruins  of  a  small,  partly  Norman  chapel,  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Blane.  The  plateau  on  which  this  chapel 
stands  is  surrounded  by  a  retaining  wall,  and  the 
church-yard  was  formerly  reserved  as  a  burial  place 
for  men  only,  an  enclosure  further  down  the  slope 
being  used  for  women.  This  curious  custom  of  sepa- 
rating the  men  and  women  of  St.  Blane's  after  death 
was  of  very  early  origin.  St.  Blane — the  traditional 
account  of  whose  birth  and  early  history  recalls  the 
story  of  St.  Mungo — went  to  Rome,  where  he  was 
consecrated  a  Bishop  and  sent  back  to  work  among 
the  people  of  his  native  Bute.  He  brought  with  him 
a  quantity  of  consecrated  earth  for  the  burying-ground 


Kyles  of  Bute 


BUTE. 


397 


of  the  church  which  he  purposed  to  build  as  a  votive 
offering  for  his  own  miraculous  preservation  in  infancy. 
The  women  of  Bute  however  refused  to  assist  in  the 
pious  work  of  carrying  this  earth  from  the  landing 
place  up  the  hill,  and  in  consequence  were  forbidden 
by  St.  Blane  ever  to  share  in  its  benefits.  For  genera- 
tions it  was  locally  believed  that  should  a  female  be 
interred  in  the  consecrated  soil  of  the  upper  church- 
yard, the  other  bodies  would  of  themselves  rise  out 
of  their  graves.  By  1661  however  the  prejudice  had 
died  out — it  was  doubtless  held  to  be  a  Popish  super- 
stition— and  the  Presbytery  was  petitioned  to  abolish 
the  custom  of  separate  interment.  Since  then  the 
women  have  peacefully  reposed  beside  their  husbands, 
fathers  and  sons. 

Two  small  islands,  known  as  the  Meikle  Cumbrae 
and  the  Little  Cumbrae,  lie  to  the  east  of  Bute  and 
are  included  in  that  county.  The  Meikle  Island 
contains  a  flourishing  little  town  called  Millport,  with 
some  eighteen  hundred  inhabitants.  There  are  sev- 
eral churches  in  the  town,  but  the  finest  building  in 
the  island  is  the  pro-Cathedral  of  the  Diocese  of  Argyll 
and  the  Isles  in  the  Scottish  Episcopal  Church.  This 
church,  which  is  dedicated  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  a 
theological  college  attached  to  it,  were  built  by  the 
Earl  of  Glasgow  in  1849-51.  Historically  this  island 
is  known  as  the  place  where  Haco  encamped  before 
the  battle  of  Largs. 

On  the  Little  Cumbrae,  hard  by,  are  found  the 


398     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

ruins  of  the  chapel  and  tomb  of  St.  Vey,  an  early 
Celtic  saint,  and  an  ancient  tower,  dating  from  the 
times  of  the  Scandinavian  pirates,  which  was  sur- 
prised and  burned  by  Cromwell.  The  Great  Cumbrae 
is  but  three  and  a  half  miles  long,  and  the  Little 
Cumbrae  is  less  than  two  miles ;  yet  the  minister  of 
Millport,  not  very  long  dead,  was  in  the  habit  of  using 
this  form  of  prayer:  "Bless,  O  Lord,  the  Meikle 
Cumbrae,  and  the  Little  Cumbrae,  and  the  adjacent 
Islands  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland." 

Arran,  the  largest  of  the  islands  of  Buteshire,  lies 
to  the  south  and  is  owned  almost  wholly  by  the  Duke 
of  Hamilton.  Its  ancient  Castles  of  Loch  Ranza  and 
Brodick  were  Crown  property  at  the  time  of  the  War 
of  Independence,  and  the  latter  had  been  seized  and 
was  garrisoned  by  the  English  in  the  spring  of  1307. 

But  King  Robert  Bruce  was  not  far  off.  It  will 
be  remembered  how,  after  his  defeat  by  the  Lord  of 
Lorn  at  Dairy  in  August,  1306,  Bruce  fled  down 
Loch  Lomond  and  Dumbartonshire  and  thence  by 
ship  to  Kintyre.  From  Kintyre  he  sailed  with  some 
three  hundred  faithful  followers  to  the  Island  of 
Rathlin,  on  the  north  coast  of  Ireland.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  while  resting  here  Bruce  received  a  great 
incentive  to  renewed  action.  Weary  of  the  struggle, 
which  seemed  hopeless,  he  was  thinking  of  abandoning 
it.  He  was  sorely  troubled  by  his  conscience  for  his 
action  at  Dumfries — not,  be  it  noted,  for  hilling  the 
Red  Corny n,  which  he  looked  upon  merely  as  an  act 


BUTE. 


399 


of  justice  on  a  traitor,  but  for  killing  him  in  a  church, 
which  was  sacrilege.  He  therefore  contemplated  re- 
tiring to  the  Holy  Land,  there,  in  a  crusade  against 
the  infidels,  to  expiate  his  sin.  Thinking  over  these 
things,  while  lying  in  a  hut,  his  eye  fell  on  a  spider 
attempting  to  stretch  his  web  from  one  rafter  to 
another.  Six  times,  as  he  watched,  the  spider  failed, 
but  at  the  seventh  attempt  he  succeeded.  Bruce  ap- 
plied the  parable  to  himself ;  six  times  had  he  been 
baffled  and  defeated,  perhaps,  like  the  spider,  his 
seventh  effort  might  succeed. 

There  is  no  documentary  evidence  for  this  story, 
and  it  is  the  fashion  for  a  certain  class  of  modern 
historian  to  sneer  at  it;  but  it  has  come  down  by 
tradition,  it  was  quoted  to  Prince  Charles  by  Lord 
Lovat  in  his  historical  interview  with  the  Prince  at 
Gortleg  after  Culloden,  and  it  is  firmly  believed 
by  every  Scotsman  in  the  land.  To  this  day  no  true 
Scotsman  will  kill  a  spider  on  any  account  whatever  ; 
but  if  any  one  of  the  name  of  Bruce  were  to  do  so  it 
would  be  considered  as  equivalent  almost  to  murder 
and  sacrilege. 

Whether  Bruce,  urged  by  this  omen,  felt  that  the 
time  for  action  had  come,  or  whether,  as  Barbour 
tells  us, 

"  James  of  Douglas  was  angry 
That  they  so  lang  sulci  ydill  lie," 

we  cannot  tell,  but  Douglas  and  his  friend,  Sir  Thomas 
Boyd,  went  over  to  Arran  to  reconnoitre.    Here  they 


400     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

were  fortunate  enough  to  capture  a  Government  con- 
voy, carrying  provisions  to  King  Edward's  garrison. 
They  apparently  sent  word  of  this  to  Bruce,  as  he 
arrived  on  the  island  ten  days  later.  Barbour  gives  a 
dramatic  account  of  the  meeting.  The  King  on  land- 
ing asked  a  woman  if  she  had  seen  any  strangers  on 
the  island  and  where.  She  led  him  to  "  ane  woody 
glen/'  which  Bruce  entered,  and  sounded  a  blast  of 
his  hunting  horn.  The  note  was  recognized  from  afar 
by  Douglas  as  the  King's,  and  the  friends  were  soon 
together. 

After  a  consultation  the  leaders  determined  not  to 
stay  long  in  Arran,  but  to  make  an  organized  attack 
on  the  mainland.  The  story  of  how,  deceived  by  a 
fire  of  burning  heather  which  they  mistook  for  a 
signal,  they  crossed  to  Ayrshire  and  how  they  re- 
mained, and  the  wonderful  results,  has  already  been 
told  in  Chapter  X. 

The  present  structure  of  Brodick  Castle,  alluded  to 
above,  is  probably  no  older  than  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  though  some  sort  of  stronghold  has 
doubtless  stood  on  the  site  from  very  early  times.  It 
is  now  one  of  the  seats  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton. 
The  only  other  land-owner  in  Arran  is  the  head  of  a 
family  of  Fullartons,  whose  little  property — Kil- 
michael — came  to  them  in  grant  from  King  Robert 
Bruce,  in  acknowledgment  of  some  service  rendered 
during  his  stay  on  the  island  in  1307,  and  it  still 
remains  in  the  family. 


KINTYRE. 


401 


About  midway,  on  the  west  coast,  is  the  King's 
Cove,  supposed  to  have  concealed  Bruce  and  his  com- 
panions for  a  time,  and  associated  traditionally  with 
the  mythical  Fingal. 

"Farther  beyond  Lome,"  says  one  old  historian, 
u  the  lande  as  it  war  in  disdane  is  driuen  to  a  strait 
and  gret  narownes  .  .  .  sum  tyme  named  Menauia, 
bot  now  thay  cal  it  Kaintyr — that  is  the  head  of  the 
land." 

Campbelltown  has  been  the  most  important  place 
in  Kintyre  ever  since  the  time  when,  under  the  name 
of  Dalruadhain,  it  ranked  first  among  the  towns  of 
Dalriada,  i.  e.,  the  kingdom  established  by  the  sons  of 
Eric.  It  was  made  a  royal  burgh  by  James  II.  and 
given  its  present  name.  Both  burgh  and  parish  are 
included  in  the  property  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll. 

Near  Campbelltown  are  the  ruined  chapels  of  Kil- 
chonolan  and  Kilchenzie,  examples  of  those  Celtic 
churches,  traces  of  which  abound  on  the  west  coast 
and  on  the  Islands.  No  fewer  than  eighteen  of  these 
are  to  be  found  in  Kintyre,  Knapdale  and  Islay  alone. 

In  a  little  valley  on  the  east  coast  of  Kintyre  are 
the  sparse  remains  of  a  Bernardine  Cistercian  Abbey, 
founded  in  the  thirteenth  century  by  Ranald  (son  of 
Somerled).  The  adjoining  Castle,  built  about  three 
hundred  years  later,  was  restored  some  time  after  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  is  now  in 
a  beautiful  state  of  preservation. 

Another  well-preserved  building  is  Skipness  Castle, 
Vol.  IL— 26 


402     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

on  the  northeastern  coast  of  Kintyre.  It  is  a  large 
and  imposing  fortalice  of  the  early  half  of  the  four- 
teenth century  j  originally  the  property  of  the  Mac- 
dougals  it  later  fulfilled  the  common  destiny  of  most 
of  the  estates  in  Argyllshire  and  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  Campbells.  A  chapel  dedicated  to  St.  Colomba 
stands  without  the  walls  towards  the  shore. 

Tarbert  Castle,  commanding  the  isthmus  that  con- 
nects Kintyre  with  Knapdale,  afforded  King  Robert 
Bruce  an  opportunity  to  pursue  the  policy  which  the 
English  had  used  to  such  good  effect  in  Scotland. 
Finding  it  in  a  state  of  dilapidation  he,  in  1326, 
caused  it  to  be  thoroughly  repaired,  armed  and  gar- 
risoned, to  serve  as  a  point  (Tappui  from  which  to 
overawe  the  neighboring  rebellious  chiefs.  So  keen 
was  his  interest  in  the  work  of  restoration  that  a  still 
existing  charter  records  his  payment  of  £5  6s.  8d.  to 
"  Robert  the  Mason  "  for  having  of  his  own  accord 
built  one  of  the  walls  thicker  than  was  required  by 
his  contract. 

Still  another  great  thirteenth  century  stronghold  of 
southern  Argyllshire  is  Castle  Swin,  on  the  west  coast 
of  Knapdale.  The  name  is  said  to  be  a  contraction 
of  that  of  a  Scandinavian  Prince  Sweyn,  its  original 
owner,  and  it  is  quite  likely  that  the  spot  was  once 
occupied  by  a  Norwegian  fortress.  Architecturally 
the  present  building  has  a  certain  interest  of  its  own, 
as  it  resembles  more  closely  a  Norman  Castle  than  any 
other  Castle  in  Scotland.    Its  history  however  is  like 


ISLAY.  403 

that  of  many  others — it  was  held  by  the  Lords  of  the 
Isles  till  towards  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
when  Sir  Colin  Campbell,  first  Earl  of  Argyll,  was 
appointed  its  keeper.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
Colkitto1  reduced  it  to  ruins. 

Islay,  called  the  Queen  of  the  Hebrides,  was 
where  the  Macdonalds,  Lords  of  the  Isles,  main- 
tained their  semi-regal  state  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries.  In  James  V.?s  time  one  of  the 
Macdonalds,  called,  like  the  original  chief,  John  of 
Islay,  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  revive  the 
ancient  title  and  authority  of  the  Lords  of  the  Isles. 
In  the  succeeding  reign  (James  VI.'s)  a  vigorous 
policy  was  adopted  towards  the  Highlands  and  Islands, 
and  those  Highland  chiefs,  who  also  owned  Lowland 
estates,  were  given  authority  to  proceed  against  their 
rebellious  and  restless  neighbors,  whose  forfeited  lands 
were  to  be  the  reward  of  success.  In  such  a  business 
as  this  the  Campbells  would  be  sure  to  take  an  active 
part.  By  the  year  1616  a  general  pacification  of  the 
West  Highlands  had  been  effected  and  the  Campbells 
had  added  to  their  already  vast  possessions,  Kintyre, 
Islay  and  Jura. 

But  what  tended  more  to  the  pacification  of  the 
Western  Highlands  and  Islands  than  any  violent 

1  Alaster  Macdonald,  a  Scots-Irishman  of  the  Antrim  family,  com- 
mander of  the  auxiliary  force  sent  to  Montrose  from  Ireland  in  1644. 
"  He  was  called  Coll  Kittoch  or  Colkitto,  from  his  being  left-handed  ; 
a  very  brave  and  daring  man,  but  vain  and  opinionative,  and  wholly 
ignorant  of  regular  warfare."—  Tales  of  a  Grandfather. 


404     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

measures  was  the  peaceful  mission  of  a  Scottish 
clergyman  in  the  year  1609.  From  the  earliest  days 
of  the  Stewarts  these  Western  clans  had  constantly 
been  in  disorder,  and  generally  in  rebellion  against  the 
Crown.  To  bring  them  into  subjection  had  ever  been 
the  aim  of  the  Government,  but  the  task  had  been 
too  hard.  Shortly  after  James  VI.  had  succeeded  to 
the  throne  of  England — an  event  which  enormously 
increased  the  power  of  the  Crown — he  set  his  mind 
to  the  task,  and  with  that  practical  sagacity  which 
this  peaceable  monarch  ever  showed,  and  which  has 
never  been  properly  recognized,  he  chose  his  policy 
and  his  instruments  well. 

In  1608  Lord  Ochiltree  was  sent  on  a  preliminary 
mission  to  the  Islands,  and  he  was  given  as  his  secre- 
tary Master  Andrew  Knox,  the  country  minister  of  a 
Midlothian  parish.  Knox's  talents  for  administra- 
tion were  realized,  and  the  following  year  James, 
who  had  about  this  time  reintroduced  Bishops  into 
the  Scottish  Church,  while  there  was  as  yet  no  great 
cleavage  between  Presbyterian  and  Episcopal  forms, 
made  Andrew  Knox  Bishop  of  the  newly-resuscitated 
Diocese  of  Argyll  and  the  Isles,  and  sent  him  as  royal 
commissioner  to  pacify  the  Western  Highlanders. 

Knox  established  his  headquarters  at  Iona,  and 
there  the  wild  chieftains  met  him  and  cheerfully 
agreed  to  his  proposals,  which  were  promulgated  and 
are  known  as  "The  Statutes  of  Iona." 

The  first  of  these  was  the  establishment  of  inns. 


ISLAY. 


405 


Hitherto  the  exercise  of  hospitality  by  the  chiefs  had 
fallen  upon  poor  retainers,  who  had  to  provide  the 
supplies. 

The  personal  retainers  of  a  chief  were  to  be  limited 
to  those  whom  he  could  keep  out  of  his  own  private 
rents. 

Sorners,  or  sturdy  beggars,  whom  the  chiefs  had 
encouraged  as  useful  followers  in  their  feuds  and 
wars,  were  to  be  expelled,  and  no  man  was  to  be 
allowed  in  a  chief 's  territory  who  had  not  some 
ostensible  means  of  earning  his  bread. 

Tribal  bards,  who  inflamed  the  minds  of  the  people 
with  warlike  songs,  exciting  them  to  vengeance  for 
fancied  wrongs,  or  to  emulation  of  the  daring  deeds 
of  their  ancestors,  were  to  be  suppressed. 

Marriage,  which  had  degenerated  to  an  ancient 
pagan  custom  called  hand-fasting,  binding  neither 
legally  nor  ecclesiastically,  was  to  be  restored;  and 
arrangements  were  to  be  made  for  the  support  of 
the  clergy,  who  since  the  Reformation  had  sunk  into 
poverty  and  often  contempt. 

But  perhaps  the  most  important  of  all  the  statutes 
was  that  which  decreed  that  every  Highlander  who 
was  important  enough  to  be  the  possessor  of  sixty 
head  of  cattle  was  to  send  his  eldest  son — or  failing 
a  son,  his  daughter — to  Edinburgh,  to  be  taught  to 
read  and  write  the  English  language. 

The  proof  of  the  gratitude  of  these  wild  High- 
landers for  this  parental  legislation  was  evident  be- 


406     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

fore  long.  Only  thirty-five  years  later,  when  Mon- 
trose appealed  to  the  Highlanders  for  support,  every 
one  of  these  Western  chieftains,  whose  ancestors  had 
ever  been  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Stewart  Kings, 
flocked  to  the  standard  of  Charles  I.,  the  son  of  the 
benevolent,  if  undignified  sovereign,  the  first  of  his 
race  who  had  conferred  on  them  pacific  benefits. 

Bishop  Knox,  after  the  Iona  conference,  was  made 
Steward  and  Justiciary  of  the  North  and  West  Isles 
(Orkney  and  Shetland  excepted),  and  he  was  also 
Constable  of  Dunievaig  Castle,  in  Islay,  the  chief 
fortress  of  the  ancient  Lords  of  the  Isles,  but  then 
a  property  of  the  Crown.  The  Bishop  was  enjoined  to 
exert  all  his  power  to  suppress  the  feuds  between  the 
chiefs,  and  generally  to  labor  for  the  maintenance  of 
law  and  order  in  the  Islands. 

Dunievaig  Castle  was  surprised  and  captured  by  a 
wandering  remnant  of  a  "  broken  clan,"  and  the 
Macdonalds,  coming  to  the  Bishop's  assistance,  won 
it  back,  ostensibly  for  the  King.  Once  in  possession 
however  of  this  ancient  stronghold  of  their  clan,  as 
well  as  of  the  arms  and  ammunition  with  which  the 
Government  had  stocked  it,  the  temptation  to  hold 
on  was  too  strong  to  be  resisted.  Bishop  Knox  and 
his  followers  were  captured,  and  only  allowed  their 
freedom  on  the  condition  of  leaving  a  number  of 
important  personages  as  hostages.  That  the  Bishop 
had  his  own  theory  as  to  the  underlying  cause  of  the 
affair  is  seen  by  the  following  letter : 


ISLAY. 


407 


"  All  the  trouble  that  is  done  to  me  and  my  friends 
is  because  of  Archibald  Campbell's  diligence  to  pro- 
cure the  Isle  of  Islay  for  the  Laird  of  Calder  [the 
head  of  the  Campbells  of  Calder,  generally  called 
Cawdor,  in  Moray],  of  which  they  are  certainly 
informed.  The  which  if  it  take  effect  will  breed 
great  trouble  in  the  Isles ;  far  more  nor  all  the  fine 
and  duty  of  the  Isles  of  Scotland  will  afford  these 
many  years,  and  in  the  meantime  be  the  wreck  of 
my  friends.  Neither  can  I,  or  any  man  who  knows 
the  estate  of  that  country,  think  it  good  or  profitable 
to  his  Majesty  or  this  country  to  make  that  name 
greater  in  the  Isles  nor  they  are  already,  nor  yet  to 
rout  out  one  pestiferous  clan  and  plant  in  one  little 
better,  seeing  his  Majesty  has  good  occasion  now  with 
little  expenses  to  make  a  new  plantation  of  honest 
men  in  that  island,  answerable  to  that  of  Ulster  in 
Ireland,  lying  upon  the  next  shore,  with  which  Islay 
hath  daily  commerce." 

Jura,  a  wild  and  in  great  part  uninhabitable  island, 
lies  to  the  north  of  Islay,  from  which  it  is  divided 
by  the  Sound  of  Islay.  This  most  rugged  of  all 
the  Western  Islands  is  also  held  by  the  Campbell 
family.  The  ridge  of  barren  mountains  that  runs 
down  its  centre  rises  near  the  southern  termination 
iuto  three  lofty  peaks,  visible  at  a  great  distance, 
and  called  the  Paps  of  Jura.  On  the  north,  between 
Jura  and  the  little  Island  of  Scarba,  is  a  famous 
whirlpool,  Corrievrechan,  much  dreaded  by  small  craft. 


408     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

Oronsay  and  Colonsay  lie  about  ten  miles  west  of 
Jura.  The  first,  though  insignificant  in  size,  pos- 
sesses the  most  considerable  monastic  buildings  to  be 
found  in  all  the  Western  Islands,  Iona  alone  excepted. 

Traditionally  the  name  is  derived  from  St.  Oran,  a 
companion  of  St.  Columba.  It  is  said  that  these 
missionaries  landed  first  on  Oronsay,  but  finding  that 
from  a  high  point  of  land  it  was  still  possible  to 
descry  Ireland,  the  country  from  which  they  had 
come,  they  sailed  further  and  established  themselves 
on  Iona.  The  two  islands  are  rich  in  ecclesiastical 
remains,  traces  of  ten  ancient  churches  existing  on 
Colonsay  alone. 

The  Priory  of  Oronsay  was  founded  in  the  four- 
teenth century  by  the  Lord  of  the  Isles.  The  now 
roofless  church  and  parts  of  the  cloister,  and  the 
domestic  buildings,  are  still  standing.  There  is  also 
to  be  seen  a  very  beautiful  stone  sculptured  cross  in 
good  preservation,  rising  twelve  feet  above  the  base. 

The  Crinan  Canal,  which  severs  Knapdale  from  the 
mainland,  was  opened  in  1801.  It  extends  from 
Ardrishaig  on  the  east  side  to  Loch  Crinan  on  the 
west,  the  very  fine  harbor  at  the  latter  place  having 
determined  the  selection  of  this  route  for  the  canal. 
It  is  nine  miles  long  and  the  passage  through  its 
fifteen  locks  is  one  of  the  features  of  the  very  popular 
sea  trip  from  Glasgow  to  Oban. 

Eight  miles  north  of  the  Crinan  Canal  is  the  head 
of  Loch  Awe,  a  loch  twenty-two  miles  long  and  in  few 


Kilchurn  Castle,  Loch  Awe 


LOCH  AWE. 


409 


places  more  thaD  a  mile  broad.  It  runs  in  a  north- 
easterly direction,  through  the  most  exquisite  Highland 
scenery  to  the  very  heart  of  the  Highland  country. 

It  was  on  the  northern  shores  of  Loch  Awe  that 
Bruce,  three  months  after  his  victory  at  Inverurie  in 
Aberdeenshire,  met  and  completely  defeated  the  Lord 
of  Lorn  in  1308,  and  thus  avenged  his  defeat  by  that 
chief  at  Dairy  two  years  before.  Xorth  of  the  loch 
lies  Glenorchy,  anciently  the  country  of  the  Mac- 
gregors,  a  clan  that  was  no  more  successful  than  its 
neighbors  in  resisting  the  encroachments  of  the 
Campbells ;  and  accordingly  in  the  reign  of  David 
II.  we  find  Sir  Colin  Campbell,  the  Black  Knight  of 
Rhodes  (an  order  better  known  by  its  later  designa- 
tion "  Knights  of  Malta"),  a  younger  son  of  Duncan 
Campbell  of  Lochow,  obtaining  legal  title  to  Glen- 
orchy, and  founding  the  powerful  Glenorchy  or  Bread- 
albane  branch  of  the  Campbells.  Sir  Colin  built 
Kilchurn  Castle,  on  a  little  peninsula  extending  from 
the  north  shore  of  Loch  Awe,  about  the  middle 
of  the  fifteenth  century ;  but  tradition  has  it  that 
his  wife  was  the  builder  during  her  husband's  absence 
in  the  Holy  Land,  and  tells  of  his  return,  after 
years  of  absence,  just  in  time  to  prevent  her  from 
marrying  a  neighboring  laird,  who  had  intercepted 
Sir  Colin' s  letters  and  persuaded  his  wife  to  believe 
him  dead.  The  ruins  of  the  massive  keep  and  of  a 
seventeenth  century  addition,  which  are  still  standing, 
are  famed  for  their  beauty  and  picturesqueness. 


410     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

The  earliest  stronghold  with  which  the  name  of 
Campbell  is  associated  is  Ardchonnel  Castle,  the  home 
of  Gilespic  Campbell,  the  founder  of  the  family,  which 
stands  on  an  island  near  the  east  shore  of  Loch  Awe. 

West  of  Loch  Awe  lies  the  district  of  Lorn,  and  on 
the  extreme  edge  of  a  steep  cliff  on  the  Island  of 
Kerrera  is  "  a  little  architectural  gem,"  Gylen  Castle, 
a  very  ancient  stronghold  of  the  Macdougals,  Lords 
of  Lorn.  Here  was  preserved  the  Brooch  of  Lorn, 
taken  from  King  Robert  Bruce  at  the  battle  of 
Dairy,  and  kept  in  the  family  of  the  Macdougals  till 
1647,  when  Gylen  was  sacked  and  burned  by  General 
Leslie.  Campbell  of  Inverawe  got  possession  of  the 
relic;  it  was  sold  by  one  of  his  descendants  in  1825,  and 
bought  from  a  London  jeweller  by  General  Campbell 
of  Lochnell,  who  restored  it  to  its  hereditary  owner. 

Alexander  II.  died  in  Kerrera  in  1249.  He  had 
come  to  the  west  coast  with  the  design  of  overaweing 
the  island  chiefs  into  transferring  their  allegiance  from 
the  Norwegian  Crown  to  that  of  Scotland.  There  is 
a  tradition  that  before  he  fell  ill  the  King  had  a 
vision.  Three  men  appeared  before  him  ;  one,  dressed 
like  a  royal  personage,  had  a  red  face  and  a  squint 
and  was  terrible  of  aspect ;  another  was  of  command- 
ing stature  and  fierce  countenance,  and  the  third  was 
a  noble  and  beautiful  youth,  very  richly  attired. 
These  three  personages  inquired  the  object  of  the 
King's  journey,  and  on  being  told  that  it  was  to  wrest 
the  islands  from  Norway,  they  solemnly  warned  him 


THE  FIRTH  OF  LORN. 


411 


to  desist,  and  then  vanished.  They  are  identified  as 
St.  Olive,  St.  Coluniba  and  St.  Magnus,  though  why 
St.  Columba  should  have  been  in  company  with  the  two 
Norwegian  saints  and  engaged  on  such  a  mission  is  not 
very  evident.  The  King's  failure  to  heed  the  warning 
was  of  course  held  to  be  the  cause  of  his  death. 

Oban,  a  cheerful,  busy  town  and  the  starting-point 
for  numberless  excursions,  is  of  comparatively  modern 
origin,  its  first  stone  house  having  been  built  in  1713. 
A  little  to  the  north  is  Dunolly  Castle,  of  very  ancient 
origin  and  belonging  formerly  to  the  Chiefs  of  Lorn. 
A  few  miles  to  the  northeast  is 

"...  Where  Dunstaffnage  hears  the  raging 
Of  Connal  with  his  rocks  engaging." 

Dunstaffnage  is  a  thirteenth  century  Castle,  once — 
like  the  earlier  stronghold  of  the  Pictish  King-  it 
replaced — a  royal  fortress.  Here,  according  to  tra- 
dition, was  preserved  the  famous  Stone  of  Destiny, 
prior  to  its  removal  by  Kenneth  II.  to  Scone.  Dun- 
staffnage has  been  held  by  the  Campbells  since  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

Duart  Castle,  commanding  the  southeast  entrance  to 
the  Sound  of  Mull,  was  anciently  a  stronghold  of  the 
Lords  of  the  Isles.  In  the  fourteenth  century  a  certain 
Lauchlan  Maclean  having  married  Margaret,  a  daugh- 
ter of  John,  Lord  of  the  Isles,  added  to  the  great  rude 
fortress  and  founded  the  line  of  the  Macleans  of 
Duart,  a  family  that  became  very  powerful  in  the 


412     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


West.  In  the  sixteenth  century  a  chief  of  this  house 
married  Lady  Elizabeth  Campbell,  daughter  of  the 
third  Earl  of  Argyll.  Wearying  in  time  of  his  wife, 
Maclean  conducted  her  one  day  to  a  small  islet  which, 
lying  midway  in  the  channel  between  the  Island  of 
Lismore  and  Mull,  is  only  visible  at  low  water,  and 
there  left  her  to  be  drowned  by  the  incoming  tide. 

By  chance,  however,  some  Campbells  passed  that 
way  in  a  boat,  just  in  time  to  rescue  the  unfortunate 
lady  and  take  her  to  her  father's  house.  But  her 
husband,  knowing  nothing  of  this,  announced  her 
death  and  had  a  mock  funeral  duly  attended  by  crowds 
of  mourning  Campbells.  Shortly  after,  however,  he 
was  found  dead  in  his  bed,  and  it  was  known  that  he 
had  been  killed  by  one  of  his  wife's  brothers. 

The  island,  or  rather  rock,  for  it  is  nothing  more, 
where  this  incident  occurred  is  called  from  it  The 
Lady  Rock.  The  story  is  told  by  Campbell  in  the 
ballad  of  "  Glenara,"  and  it  also  forms  the  basis  of 
Joanna  Baillie's  drama,  The  Family  Legend} 

1  This  play  was  given  for  the  first  time  in  Edinburgh,  in  the  winter 
of  1810.  Scott  and  Henry  Mackenzie  (the  Man  of  Feeling)  wrote  a 
prologue  and  an  epilogue,  and  the  leading  parts  were  taken  by  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Siddons. 

Scott  writes  to  Miss  Baillie  the  next  day:  "You  have  only  to 
imagine  all  that  you  could  wish  to  give  success  to  a  play,  and  your 
conceptions  will  still  fall  short  of  the  complete  and  decided  triumph 
of  The  Family  Legend.  The  house  was  crowded  to  the  most  extra- 
ordinary degree.  .  .  .  Siddons  announced  the  play  'for  the  rest  of 
the  week,''  which  was  received  not  only  with  a  thunder  of  applause, 
but  with  cheering  and  with  throwing  up  of  hats  and  handkerchiefs." 


THE  FIRTH  OF  LORN. 


413 


On  the  Island  of  Lismore  are  the  remains  of  the 
thirteenth  century  Cathedral  of  Lismore,  now  used  as 
a  parish  church.  About  five  miles  to  the  south  are 
the  ruins  of  Achanduin  Castle,  the  Episcopal  residence. 

Opposite  Lismore  and  commanding  the  southeastern 
entrance  to  the  Sound  of  Mull  is  Ardtornish,  long  one 
of  the  most  powerful  of  the  many  strongholds  of  the 
Lords  of  the  Isles.  Some  idea  of  the  enormous 
iufluence  wielded  by  these  chiefs  may  be  gathered 
from  the  fact  that  at  Ardtornish  in  1461  John  of 
Islay,  Lord  of  the  Isles,  and,  according  to  his  own 
claim,  Earl  of  Ross,  duly  appointed  commissioners, 
after  the  manner  of  royalty,  to  confer  with  commis- 
sioners of  "the  most  excellent  Prince  Edward,  by 
the  grace  of  God  King  of  France  and  England  and 
Lord  of  Ireland."  The  outcome  of  the  conference 
was  a  treaty  of  alliance — the  Lord  of  the  Isles  agree- 
ing to  become  vassal  to  the  Crown  of  England  and 
to  aid  Edward  IV.  and  James,  Earl  of  Douglas,  to 
subdue  the  realm  of  Scotland.  The  opening  scenes 
of  The  Lord  of  the  Isles  are  laid  in  Ardtornish  Castle. 

u  'Wake,  Maid  of  Lorn!'  the  minstrels  sung. 
Thy  rugged  hall,  Artornish,  rung. 

****** 
Who  on  that  morn's  resistless  call 
Were  silent  in  A.rtornish  hall  V 

One  of  the  most  ancient  of  the  existing  strongholds 
of  the  West  is  Mingarry  Castle,  a  gloomy  and  forbid- 
ding pile,  covering  a  detached  rock  on  the  south  shore 


414     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

of  Ardnamurchan.  This  promontory  was  granted  to 
Angus  Macdonald,  grandson  of  Ranald,  and  son  of 
Donald,  the  founder  of  the  clan  of  that  name,  in  recog- 
nition of  the  part  he  took  in  the  Convention  of  1284, 
which  declared  the  Maid  of  Norway  heiress  to  the 
Crown  of  Scotland.  Mingarry  Castle,  dating  from 
the  thirteenth  century,  became  the  stronghold  of  the 
Maclans,  a  sept  of  the  Clan  Macdonald.  In  1644  it 
was  captured  by  Colkitto  and  used  as  a  prison  for 
Covenanters. 

The  Stewart  family,  a  sketch  of  whose  history  has 
been  given  in  the  chapter  on  Renfrewshire,  increasing 
in  power  and  in  number,  gradually  spread  into  the 
Highlands.  "  Of  these,"  says  Browne,  in  his  History 
of  the  Highlands,  "  the  principal  were  the  Stewarts 
of  Lorn,  of  Atholl,  and  of  Balquhidder,  from  one  or 
other  of  which  all  the  rest  have  been  derived.  The 
Stewarts  of  Lorn  are  descended  from  a  natural  son 
of  John  Stewart,  the  last  Lord  of  Lorn,  who,  with 
the  assistance  of  the  Maclarens,  retained  forcible 
possession  of  part  of  his  father's  estates.  From  this 
family  sprang  the  Stewarts  of  Appin.  .  .  Appin, 
the  country  of  this  branch  of  the  Stewarts,  lies  along 
the  east  shore  of  Loch  Linnhe. 

"  Stuart  of  Apine  .  .  .  was  not  personally  in  the 
Late  Rebellion,  but  the  Gentlemen  and  Commons  of 
his  Clan  were  almost  to  a  man,  with  a  very  uncommon 
zeal.  The  People  of  this  country  are  tall,  strong 
and  well  bodied  ;  they  are  a  kind  of  Protestants  .  .  . 


APPIN. 


415 


Idolize  the  Xonjuring  Clergy  and  are  Enthusiastically 
Mad  in  their  Zeal  for  Restoring  the  Stuart  family." 

It  was  in  Appin,  at  a  point  "  at  the  entering  in  of 
Loch  Ley  en,"  that  David  Balfour  (in  Kidnapped) 
landed  just  in  time  to  witness  the  shooting  of  Colin  Roy 
Campbell  of  Glenure.  Even  at  first  sight  and  before 
he  and  Alan  Breck  had  been  hunted  up  and  down 
its  steep  heights  and  desolate  wastes  in  hunger,  weari- 
ness, thirst  and  fear  of  their  lives,  poor  David  observed 
that  "it  seemed  a  hard  country  this  of  Appin  for 
people  to  care  as  much  about  as  Alan  did." 

The  author,  whose  description  of  the  Stuarts  of 
Appin  is  quoted  above,  goes  on  to  say :  "  Bordering 
upon  Apine  is  Glenco.  .  .  .  Before  the  Revolution  this 
small  country  was  famous  for  Murder,  Theft  and 
Rapine.  The  Earl  of  Breadalbane  [chief  of  that 
branch  of  the  Campbells]  had  some  lands  adjacent 
to  theirs  which  they  turned  to  waste.  They  came 
yearly  with  their  cattle  and  Eat  up  the  Grass  that 
grew  upon  his  Lands  without  ever  making  the  least 
acknowledgment  for  so  doing."  It  was  these  depreda- 
tions that  led  indirectly  to  the  melancholy  event 
known  in  history  as  the  Massacre  of  Glencoe. 

As  was  mentioned  earlier  in  this  chapter,  the 
Government  of  William  III.  had  entrusted  to  the 
Earl  of  Breadalbane  certain  sums  of  money,  to 
be  distributed  among  the  Highland  chiefs  in  con- 
sideration of  their  making  submission  to  the  Gov- 
ernment.    All  who  should  fail  to  do  so  within  a 


416     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

certain  limited  period  were  to  be  visited  with  fire 
and  sword. 

Breadalbane  proposed  to  Alexander  Macdonald, 
generally  termed  Maclan,1  of  Glencoe,  to  keep  his 
share  of  the  Government  money  in  satisfaction  for 
the  damage  committed  on  Breadalbane's  lands  by 
Glencoe's  people.  This  proposal  being  angrily  refused, 
there  was  a  quarrel,  and  Glencoe  held  off  as  long  as 
possible  from  making  submission.  Sir  John  Dal- 
rhymple,  the  Master  of  Stair,  then  Secretary  of  State 
for  Scotland,  a  warm  friend  and  supporter  of  Bread- 
albane, meanwhile  sent  in  a  report  that  "the  Mac- 
donalds  were  not  making  submission,  and  that  they 
were  an  incorrigibly  lawless  tribe  of  thieves  and  mur- 
derers." 

The  legal  time  for  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance 
expired  on  the  1st  of  January,  1692.  On  December 
31  Glencoe  appeared  before  Colonel  Hill  at  Fort 
William  and  offered  to  take  the  oath,  but  Colonel 
Hill,  not  being  a  civil  officer,  declined  to  receive  it, 
giving  him  however  a  letter  to  Sir  Colin  Campbell  at 
Inverary,  Sheriff  of  Argyllshire,  in  which  he  stated 

1  This  chief  and  his  clan  were  locally  termed  Maclan,  which 
means  Sons  of  John,  although  a  main  branch  of  the  Macdonalds. 
As  there  were  so  many  branches  of  the  Macdonalds  in  Argyll  and 
Inverness-shire,  it  became  usual  to  give  additional  names  to  indi- 
vidual families.  Maclan,  son  of  John,  MacEachain,  son  of  Hector, 
Maclsaac,  MacColl  and  many  others  are  common  in  the  Macdonald 
country.  When  leaving  home  persons  having  these  names  often 
revert  to  their  original  clan  name  Macdonald,  as  in  the  case  of  Neil 
MacEachain  and  his  son,  Marshal  Macdonald. 


GLENCOE. 


417 


the  case  and  asked  him  to  receive  the  oath,  even 
though  the  legal  time  had  expired.  Maclan,  now 
thoroughly  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  his  clansmen, 
started  off  at  once  on  his  fifty  miles  journey,  by  wild 
mountain  paths,  across  swollen  streams  and  through 
deep  snow.  So  eager  was  he  to  reach  Inverary  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment  that,  although  his  road  led 
close  by  his  own  house,  he  would  not  pause  an  instant. 
Arrived  at  last  he  found  Sir  Colin  absent  and  was 
obliged  to  wait  three  days  for  his  return.  At  first 
the  Sheriff  refused  to  receive  his  submission  (it  was 
now  the  sixth  day  of  January),  but  on  second  thoughts 
consented.  "  The  Sheriff,  considering  all  the  cir- 
cumstances, administered  the  oath  ;  he  gave  Maclan  a 
certificate  and  wrote  to  the  Privy  Council  detailing 
the  facts  and  giving  explanatory  reasons  for  his  own 
conduct  in  the  matter.  This  letter  Secretary  Stair 
suppressed  and  he  deleted  the  submission  from  the 
records." 

Ten  days  later  an  order  bearing  the  King's  signa- 
ture was  issued  to  the  commander  of  the  forces  in 
Scotland.  It  ran  partly  as  follows:  "As  for  Mac- 
lan of  Glencoe  and  that  tribe,  if  they  can  be  well 
distinguished  from  the  rest  of  the  Highlanders,  it  will 
be  proper  for  the  vindication  of  public  justice  to  ex- 
tirpate that  set  of  thieves."  It  has  been  alleged  in 
defence  of  the  King  that  he  signed  this  paper  without 
knowing  its  contents,  "thinking  it  only  a  detail  in 
ordinary  business." 
Vol.  II.— 27 


418     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


Glencoe  is  a  small,  wild  valley,  shut  in  by  high 
mountains.  Through  its  midst  flows  the  river  Coe  on 
its  way  to  empty  itself  into  Loch  Leven,  an  arm  of 
Loch  Linnhe,  which  for  some  distance  forms  the 
boundary  between  Argyll  and  Inverness.  Thither, 
about  the  end  of  January,  came  Campbell  of  Glen- 
lyon  with  a  detachment  of  Argyll's  regiment.  The 
Macdonalds,  on  seeing  them  approach,  came  out  to  ask 
their  errand,  but  on  being  assured  that  this  was 
entirely  peaceable,  they  received  them  hospitably.  A 
niece  of  Glenlyon's  was  married  to  a  son  of  Maclan, 
and  for  a  fortnight  the  soldiers  remained  in  the  valley, 
quartered  about  among  the  people  and  maintaining 
the  friendliest  relations  with  them.  On  the  1 2th  of 
February  the  order  for  which  they  were  waiting  ar- 
rived. It  came  from  Glenlyon's  commanding  officer, 
Major  Duncanson,  and  ran  as  follows : 

"  You  are  hereby  ordered  to  fall  upon  the  rebels  and  put  all  to 
the  sword  under  seventy.  You  are  to  have  especial  care  that  the 
old  fox  and  his  cubs  do  on  no  account  escape  your  hands ;  you  are 
to  secure  all  the  avenues  that  no  man  escape.  This  you  are  to  put 
into  execution  at  four  in  the  morning  precisely,  and  by  that  time, 
or  very  shortly  after,  I  will  strive  to  be  at  you  with  a  stronger  party. 
But  if  I  do  not  come  to  you  at  four  you  are  not  to  tarry  for  me,  but 
fall  on.  This  is  by  the  King's  special  command,  for  the  good  and 
safety  of  the  country,  that  these  miscreants  be  cut  off  root  and 
branch.  See  that  this  be  put  into  execution,  without  either  fear  or 
favor,  else  you  may  expect  to  be  treated  as  not  true  to  the  King  or 
Government,  nor  a  man  fit  to  carry  a  commission  in  the  King's 
service.  Expecting  that  you  will  not  fail  in  the  fulfilling  hereof,  as 
you  love  yourself,  I  subscribe  these  with  my  hand. 

"  Robert  Duncanson." 


Macdonald's  Monument,  Glencoe 


GLENCOE. 


419 


With  this  document  in  his  pocket  Glenlyon  passed 
the  evening  of  the  12th  playing  cards  in  his  own 
quarters  with  the  "  cubs,"  Maclan's  two  sons,  and  he 
and  his  officers  accepted  an  invitation  to  dine  on  the 
following  day  with  "  the  old  fox  "  himself.  At  four  A. 
M.  the  slaughter  began.  Mac  Ian  was  shot  in  his  bed 
by  a  party  commanded  by  one  of  the  officers  (named 
Lindsay)  who  was  to  have  dined  with  him  that  day. 
His  wife  was  stripped  to  the  skin  and  died  on  the 
following  day  from  horror  and  exposure. 

Secretary  Stair  had  meanwhile  issued  his  orders 
worded  in  a  way  that  recalls  the  language  put  into 
the  mouths  of  Ogres  in  the  Fairy  Tales, 

"  In  the  winter,"  he  writes,  "  they  cannot  carry 
their  wives,  children  and  cattle  to  the  mountains. 
This  is  the  proper  season  to  maul  them,  in  the  long, 
dark  nights." 

Fortunately  it  so  happened  that  Major  Duncanson's 
party  was  so  delayed  by  a  heavy  fall  of  snow  that 
they  did  not  reach  the  valley  till  about  noon,  and,  the 
passes  being  thus  unguarded,  about  a  hundred  and 
fifty  men  and  most  of  the  women  and  children  escaped 
to  the  mountains.  The  belated  detachment  found  every 
house  on  fire  and  one  old  man  of  eighty  the  only  liv- 
ing human  being  left.  Him  they  killed  and  then,  col- 
lecting all  the  cattle,  drove  them  off  to  Fort  William. 

To  Secretary  Stair's  disappointment  it  was  found 
that  the  killed  numbered  only  thirty-eight.  "  I  re- 
gret," he  writes,  "  that  any  got  away." 


420     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

The  indignation  of  the  Scottish  people  was  so 
aroused  by  this  affair  that  after  three  years'  success- 
ful evasion  of  an  inquiry,  the  Government  was  at 
last  obliged  to  appoint  a  Royal  Commission  to  inves- 
tigate it.  The  members  fouud  that  the  King  was  not 
responsible  for  the  massacre,  laid  the  entire  blame  on 
Secretary  Stair,  and  recommended  that  Gleulyon  and 
the  other  officers,  who  had  carried  out  the  Secretary's 
orders,  should  be  sent  home  from  the  foreign  military 
duty  in  which  they  were  then  engaged,  and  tried  for 
their  part  in  it.  This  was  not  done,  but  Secretary  Stair 
was  removed  from  office  and  found  himself  the  object 
of  such  general  detestation  that  for  five  years  after 
his  father's  death,  which  occurred  about  this  time,  he 
did  not  dare  to  take  his  seat  in  Parliament  as  Viscount 
Stair.  The  Lord  Justice  Clerk  declared  indeed 
that  should  he  do  so  he  would  move  an  inquiry  into 
the  report  on  the  Glencoe  massacre.  He  died  in 
1707,  on  the  day  on  which  the  Treaty  of  Union  was 
signed,  "not,"  says  Sir  Walter  Scott,  "  without  a  sus- 
picion of  suicide."  General  Stewart  of  Garth  tells 
an  anecdote  of  the  grandson  of  Glenlyon,  Colonel 
Campbell,  whose  presence  of  mind  in  saving  his 
Jacobite  brother  in  1746  has  already  been  told.  Col- 
onel Campbell  was  stationed  at  Havana  in  1771, 
where  "  he  was  ordered  to  superintend  the  execution 
of  the  sentence  of  a  court-martial  on  a  soldier  of 
marines  condemned  to  be  shot.  A  reprieve  was  sent; 
but  the  whole  ceremony  of  the  execution  was  to  pro- 


THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS.  421 

ceed  until  the  criminal  was  upon  his  knees,  with  a  cap 
over  his  eyes,  prepared  to  receive  the  volley.  Then 
he  was  to  be  informed  of  his  pardon.  No  one  was  to 
be  told  previously,  and  Colonel  Campbell  was  directed 
not  to  inform  even  the  firing  party,  who  were  warned 
that  the  signal  to  fire  would  be  the  waving  of  a  white 
handkerchief  by  the  commanding  officer.  When  all 
was  ready,  and  the  clergyman  had  left  the  prisoner  on 
his  knees,  in  momentary  expectation  of  his  fate,  and 
the  firing  party  were  looking  with  intense  attention 
for  the  signal,  Colonel  Campbell  put  his  hand  into  his 
pocket  for  the  reprieve,  and  in  pulling  out  the  packet 
the  white  handkerchief  accompanied  it,  and,  catching 
the  eyes  of  the  party,  they  fired  and  the  unfortunate 
prisoner  was  shot  dead.  The  paper  dropped  from  Col- 
onel Campbell's  fingers,  and  clapping  his  hand  to  his 
forehead,  he  exclaimed,  4  The  curse  of  God  and  of 
Glencoe  is  here.  I  am  an  unfortunate,  ruined  man/ 
and  soon  afterwards  retired  from  the  service," 

THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS. 

The  islands  off  the  west  of  Scotland  were  the 
Hebudes  of  Ptolemy,  a  name  corrupted  by  error  to 
the  modern  Hebrides.  They  belonged  to  the  Nor- 
wegian monarchy  until  the  battle  of  Largs,  after 
which  they  were  formally  ceded  to  Alexander  III.  in 
1266;  but  for  two  centuries  longer  the  Lords  of  the 
Isles  maintained  a  kind  of  semi-independence. 


422     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 


The  Norwegian  name  for  the  islands  was  "  The 
Sudreys/'  or  Southern  Islands,  in  distinction  to  the 
Orkneys  and  Shetland.  The  name  still  survives  in 
"  Bishop  of  Sodor  and  Man,"  a  title  dating  from  the 
time  when  the  Sudrevs  and  the  Isle  of  Man  be- 
longed to  the  Norwegian  Crown. 

The  inhabitants  are  probably  partly  of  Scandi- 
navian, partly  of  Irish  Celtic  origin,  with  a  strong 
admixture  of  emigrants  from  the  Scottish  mainland. 
The  ordinary  spoken  language  to-day  is  Gaelic, 
though  in  the  admirable  schools  all  children  learn 
to  read  and  write  English.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
islands  are  principally  poor  "crofters,"  who  cultivate 
their  "crofts"  or  tiny  farms — wretched  strips  of  ground 
— and  eke  out  a  precarious  living  as  best  they  can ; 
but  many  of  the  people  have  taken  to  fishing,  and 
make  a  comfortable  living  out  of  it.  About  a  hun- 
dred years  ago  the  kelp  industry,  which  continued 
prosperous  for  more  than  a  generation,  enriched  the 
proprietors  and  benefited  the  tenants.  Seaweed  is 
thrown  up  by  the  Atlantic  in  enormous  masses  on  the 
shore.  This  seaweed  was  put  through  a  process  of 
burning  and  kelp  was  produced,  from  which  the 
alkalies  used  in  soap-making  were  obtained.  New 
processes  of  manufacture  destroyed  this  source  of 
revenue,  and  kelp  is  now  only  used  for  the  making  of 
iodine,  for  which  a  very  small  quantity  is  required. 

But  this  was  not  the  crofters  only  misfortune.  In 
addition  to  the  failure  of  the  kelp  industry,  the  pro- 


THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS. 


423 


prietors  had  turned  most  of  their  best  land  into 
sheep  farms,  and  driven  the  poor  crofters  to  the  worn 
land  on  the  seashore.  Thousands  were  removed  and 
forced  to  emigrate ;  yet  still  numbers  remained  and 
increased.  Their  cry  was  constantly  for  more  land 
and  better  land ;  and  the  cry  at  last  was  heard. 

Within  the  last  fifteen  years  two  Royal  Commis- 
sions have  sat  and  examined  every  island  in  the 
Hebrides ;  courts  have  been  appointed  to  fix  fair 
rents,  and  land  suitable  for  "  crofting "  has  been 
scheduled,  which  proprietors  must  on  certain  equitable 
terms  give  over  to  the  crofters,  under  supervision  of 
the  courts,  when  required.  Since  then  new  life  and 
hope  ha  ve  taken  possession  of  these  poor  people. 

The  islands  have  an  ancient  history  of  their  own, 
which  it  is  impossible  here  to  give  in  detail.  On 
most  of  them  are  interesting  archaeological  remains, 
few  of  which  have  been  properly  investigated,  owing 
to  the  difficulty  of  access.  There  are  Druidical  re- 
mains, underground  houses,  lake  dwellings,  vitrified 
forts,  Scandinavian  encampments,  or  Christian  re- 
mains, in  nearly  every  island. 

In  the  outer  islands  there  are  practically  no  trees. 
In  the  whole  of  South  Uist  there  is  but  one  tree, 
which  is,  strange  to  say,  a  California!!  araucaria,  the 
last  survivor  of  an  experiment  in  tree-planting  by  a 
former  proprietor.  Wood  for  the  rafters  of  cottages 
is  very  valuable,  and  the  people  can  generally  give 
the  history  of  their  roof-timbers,  often  more  than  a 


424     SCOTLAND,  HISTOEIC  AND  EOMANTIC. 

century  old,  and  erected  more  than  once  and  carried 
from  place  to  place. 

The  Gulf  Stream  is  a  benefactor  to  the  islands, 
much  of  their  timber  being  American,  floated  across 
the  Atlantic  and  cast  on  their  shores.  Many  a  great 
log  of  West  Indian  mahogany  has  been  found  there, 
and  quantities  of  tropical  nuts  and  beans  are  picked 
up. 

The  principal  islands  have  already  been  mentioued, 
but  it  may  be  well,  before  closing  this  volume,  to  give 
a  few  notes  on  the  smaller  members  of  this  interesting 
group. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the  British 
islands  is  St.  Kilda,  far  out  in  the  Atlantic,  over  a 
hundred  miles  from  the  nearest  point  of  the  mainland 
of  Scotland  and  forty  miles  due  west  of  North  Uist, 
the  nearest  inhabited  island.  This  rock  is  but  three 
miles  long  and  two  broad;  its  main  features  are  its 
precipitous  cliffs,  inhabited  by  myriads  of  sea  birds. 
There  are  no  trees,  and  the  only  wild  animals  are 
mice.  Two  hundred  years  ago  there  was  a  popula- 
tion of  one  hundred  and  eighty  souls;  to-day  there 
are  but  seventy-one,  whose  language  is  Gaelic. 

There  are  enough  sheep  on  the  island  to  provide 
the  inhabitants  with  meat  and  clothing,  and  a  few 
head  of  cattle.  The  rent  is  paid  in  kind,  with 
feathers,  oils,  cloth,  cheese,  tallow  and  fish. 

St.  Kilda  is  the  property  of  the  Chief  of  Mac- 
leod  of  Dunvegan  (Skye),  to  whose  family  it  has 


THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS. 


425 


belonged  for  centuries.  The  inhabitants  say  that  the 
cuckoo  always  appears  when  the  Chief  dies,  and 
only  then,  and  thus  they  always  know  when  Macleod 
is  dead.1 

The  island  is  visited  thrice  a  year  by  the  proprie- 
tor's factor,  who  takes  out  mails  and  supplies,  and 
until  the  last  two  or  three  years  these  visits  were  the 
islanders  only  communication  with  the  outer  world. 
Now  however  tourist  steamers  occasionally  carry  the 
curious  to  St.  Kilda,  and  after  each  of  these  visits 
the  inhabitants,  who  are  usually  singularly  exempt 
from  all  forms  of  illness,  are  visited  by  an  epidemic 
of  feverish  cold,  known  locally  as  the  "boat  cold," 
which  attacks  them  often  very  severely. 

St.  Kilda  was  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  scene 
of  the  abduction  and  imprisonment  of  Lady  Grange ; 
the  details  of  which  extraordinary  and  mysterious  inci- 
dent are  unfortunately  too  complicated  to  be  given 
here,  except  in  briefest  outline. 

Lady  Grange  was  a  daughter  of  Chiesley  of  Dairy, 
who  in  1689  was  hanged  for  shooting  the  Lord  Presi- 
dent of  the  Court  in  the  street.  She  inherited  her 
father's  passionate  nature,  and  it  is  believed  that  in 
addition  she  occasionally  gave  way  to  fits  of  intem- 
perance.   For  twenty-three  years  after  her  marriage 

1 1  am  informed  by  one  who  was  told  by  the  present  Chief  that 
when  his  factor  landed  in  St.  Kilda,  after  his  father's  death,  the 
people  told  him,  "We  know  that  Macleod  is  dead;  we  heard  the 
cuckoo." 


426     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

to  Lord  Grange,  who  was  a  Judge  of  the  High  Court 
and  a  member  of  Parliament,  she  lived  with  her  hus- 
band. Then  he  gave  her  a  separate  maintenance  and 
insisted  on  her  leaving  his  house.  Though  the  cause 
of  this  rupture  was  never  stated,  it  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  lady's  violent  temper  and  intemperate 
habits;  it  was  even  said  that  Lord  Grange  was  at 
times  in  actual  danger  from  her  violence.  Another 
theory  is  that  Lady  Grange  had  discovered  some  plot 
in  which  her  husband,  an  ardent  Jacobite,  was  con- 
cerned, and  had  threatened  to  expose  him. 

After  the  separation  Lady  Grange  appeared  on 
several  occasions  before  her  husband's  house  in 
Niddry's  Wynd,  screaming  threats  and  reproaches  at 
the  top  of  her  voice,  and  haranguing  the  bystanders  on 
her  wrongs,  until  the  city  guard  had  to  be  sent  for  to 
quiet  her.  In  modern  times  she  would  have  been  shut 
up  in  an  insane  asylum.  Her  husband  took  other  meas- 
ures. The  lady  disappeared,  and  it  was  given  out  that 
she  had  died.  In  reality,  however,  she  was  kidnapped 
by  a  party  of  Highlanders  wearing  Lord  Lo vat's 
livery,  carried  to  Polmaise,  near  Stirling,  and  impris- 
oned there  for  six  months,  when  she  was  removed 
and  for  nearly  two  years  was  kept  on  Heskir,  a 
desolate  island  off  North  Uist,  belonging  to  Sir  Alex- 
ander Macdonald,  which  had  for  its  sole  inhabitants 
her  jailor  and  his  wife.  Then,  the  secret  of  her  place 
of  confinement  having  leaked  out,  she  was  taken  by  a 
vessel  belonging  to  the  Chief  of  Macleod  to  St.  Kilda. 


THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS. 


427 


The  island  was  then  visited  but  once  a  year  by 
Macleod's  factor.  On  each  of  these  visits  he  brought 
a  supply  of  tea,  sugar,  flour  and  an  anker  of  spirits  " 
for  the  prisoner's  use.  She  had  a  cottage  furnished 
for  her  and  a  girl  to  wait  upon  her. 

Here  she  remained  for  seven  years,  knowing  no 
Gaelic  and  unable  to  converse  with  the  people.  At 
last  a  Presbyterian  minister  and  his  wife  came  to 
the  island ;  to  them  she  told  her  story,  and  on  leaving 
they  went  immediately  to  Edinburgh  and  informed 
Mr.  Hope  of  Rankeillor,  a  lawyer  of  eminence,  and  the 
friend  and  agent  of  Lady  Grange,  of  her  whereabouts. 
He  at  once  set  about  effecting  a  rescue,  but  before 
this  had  been  accomplished  Lord  Grange  had  taken 
alarm,  and  his  wife,  now  hopelessly  insane,  was  removed 
to  a  secret  place  in  Ross-shire,  where  she  died  in 
1745,  having  been  confined  for  thirteen  years  in 
defiance  of  the  law.  The  principal  actors  in  the 
abduction  were  all  Jacobites,  while  even  Hope  of 
Rankeillor  belonged  to  that  party. 

Lord  Grange  had  retired  from  his  judgeship  in 
1734  and  spent  his  last  days  in  London  in  a  rather 
disreputable  fashion,  and  there  he  died  in  1754  in  a 
mean  lodging  in  the  Haymarket. 

The  group  known  as  the  "Long  Island"  takes  in 
Lewis,  Harris,  North  Uist,  South  Uist,  Eriska,  Barra 
and  a  few  rocky  islets.  Lewis  formerly  belonged  to 
the  Macleods  of  Lewis,  who  were  dispossessed  cen- 
turies ago  by  the  Mackenzies.    Harris  belonged  to  a 


428     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

different  branch  of  the  Macleods.  At  Rodil,  a 
lonely  spot  at  the  south  end,  one  comes  most  unex- 
pectedly on  a  wonderful  old  church  which  belonged 
to  a  fifteenth  century  Augustinian  Monastery,  built  on 
the  site  of  an  older  Culdee  cell.  This  church,  though 
not  used  for  service,  is  kept  in  repair  by  Lord  Dun- 
more,  the  proprietor. 

The  east  shore  of  North  Uist,  Benbecula,  and  the 
western  side  of  South  Uist  all  lie  very  low  and  appear 
as  a  perfect  honeycomb  of  lochs  of  all  sizes — some  of 
salt  water,  some  of  fresh — and  it  is  difficult  to  realize 
how  the  people  continue  to  live  at  all,  yet  they  do 
live,  and  some  of  them  are  comparatively  prosperous, 
cultivating  their  strips  of  land  between  the  waters. 
Eriska  is  entirely  a  Roman  Catholic  island;  it  does 
not  contain  a  single  Protestant. 

The  northern  divisions  of  the  Long  Island  have 
most  interest  as  the  scenes  of  Prince  Charlie's  wan- 
derings after  Culloden,  which  have  been  already 
narrated. 

Barra,  the  southernmost  division  of  the  Long  Island, 
was  the  home  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Clan  of  MacNeil. 
Early  in  the  nineteenth  century  most  of  the  inhabit- 
ants emigrated,  but  unlike  the  people  of  other  districts 
the  movement  was  voluntary  and  against  the  will  of 
the  Chief.  A  characteristic  story  of  the  time  tells 
how  a  party  proceeding  to  the  shore  to  embark  were 
accompanied  by  the  Chief,  who  implored  them  to 
remain.    To  a  favorite  clansman  he  particularly  ad- 


THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS. 


429 


dressed  himself,  but  in  vain.  At  last,  losing  his  temper, 
MacNeil  struck  the  man  so  violently  that  he  fell  to 
the  ground.  Much  ashamed,  the  Chief  burst  into  tears, 
raised  the  man  and  begged  him  for  his  honor's  sake 
to  strike  him  back.  "  Do  you  think,"  was  the  reply, 
"  that  any  provocation  in  this  world  would  induce  me  to 
strike  my  Chief?  No  ;  but  should  any  man  living  offer 
to  you  the  least  affront,  I  should  be  the  first  to  fell  him 
to  the  earth."  Such  were  the  relations  between  Chief 
and  people — father  and  children.  Nor  has  this  feeling 
died  out.  A  few  years  ago  the  representative  of  the 
old  Clanranalds,  an  Admiral  in  the  British  Navy, 
visited  the  former  territory  of  his  ancestors,  long  before 
sold  into  other  hands.  The  people  crowded  around 
him,  kissed  his  hands  and  showed  every  sign  of  infinite 
affection. 

Barra,  like  Clanranald's  territory,  long  since  passed 
by  sale  to  a  Lowland  proprietor — Gordon  of  Cluny. 

East  of  Barra  lies  a  group  of  four  islands.  Canna 
is  a  Roman  Catholic  island,  on  which  are  some  ancient 
Scandinavian  and  some  Christian  remains.  Rum  is 
now  a  deer  forest,  its  entire  population  of  four  hundred 
souls  having  been  cleared  off  in  1826,  except  one 
family.  Eigg  was  once  famous  for  its  barley,  and 
therefore  for  its  illicit  stills  and  smuggling  of  whisky. 
It  possesses  a  cave,  the  scene  of  two  tragedies  sepa- 
rated from  one  another  by  nearly  a  thousand  years — 
the  massacre  in  617  of  St.  Donnan,  a  monk  of  Iona, 
with  his  entire  company  of  fifty-two  persons,  and  the 


430     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

killing  there  of  two  hundred  Macdonalds  in  the  six- 
teenth century  by  the  chief  of  Macleod  and  his  followers. 
Muick  was  a  farm  of  the  monks  of  Iona,  and  Tyree, 
further  south,  was  the  monastery's  granary.  Coll  was 
formerly  a  Maclean  island,  and  is  now  the  property 
of  Colonel  Lome  Stewart,  a  scion  of  the  Appin 
family,  whose  house  Breacacha  Castle  is  the  modern 
successor  of  an  ancient  stronghold  of  the  Lords  of 
the  Isles. 

On  Coll  Island  Dr.  Johnson  and  Bos  well  were 
storm-bound  for  ten  days.  The  two  cockneys  found 
themselves  reduced  to  the  last  extremity  for  means  of 
entertainment.  Bos  well  eagerly  ran  after  anything 
in  the  shape  of  a  "  sight "  and  Dr.  Johnson  ransacked 
the  garret  of  the  laird's  house  for  books.  "As  in 
our  present  confinement  anything  that  had  the  name 
of  curious  was  an  object  of  attention,  I  proposed  that 
Coll  should  show  me  the  great  stone  mentioned  in  a 
former  page  as  having  been  thrown  by  a  giant  to  the 
top  of  a  mountain.  Dr.  Johnson,  who  does  not  like 
to  be  left  alone,  said  he  would  accompany  us  as  far 
as  riding  was  practicable.  We  ascended  a  part  of  the 
hill  on  horseback.  A  servant  held  our  horses,  and 
Dr.  Johnson  placed  himself  on  the  ground,  with  his 
back  against  a  large  fragment  of  rock.  The  wind 
being  high,  he  let  down  the  cocks  of  his  hat  and 
tied  it  with  his  handkerchief  under  his  chin  ...  he 
amused  himself  with  reading  Gataker  on  Lots  and  on 
the  Christian  Watch  .  .  .  found  in  the  garret  of  Coil's 


THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS. 


431 


house.  .  .  .  On  our  return  he  told  us  he  had  been  so 
engaged  by  Gataker  that  he  had  never  missed  us.  .  .  . 
We  proceeded  to  the  lead  mine.  In  our  way  we 
came  to  a  strand  of  some  extent,  when  we  were  glad 
to  take  a  gallop.  Dr.  Johnson,  mounted  on  a  large 
bay  mare  without  shoes,  and  followed  by  a  foal  which 
had  some  difficulty  in  keeping  up  with  him,  was  a 
singular  spectacle." 

Coll,  more  than  any  other  island  of  the  Hebrides, 
benefited  by  the  kindly  action  of  the  Gulf  Stream. 
The  harvest  from  shipwrecks  has  almost  ceased  since 
the  building  of  the  great  Skerryvore  Light  House ; 
yet  even  now  a  good  haul  is  occasionally  made.  In 
1 900  an  Atlantic  liner  was  wrecked  near  the  Skerry- 
vore rocks,  and  the  next  morning  the  shores  of  Coll 
were  strewn  with  American  apples  and  a  miscella- 
neous assortment  of  objects,  among  which  were  three 
American  organs,  thrown  up  under  the  proprietor's 
windows. 

Southeast  of  Coll,  off  the  west  shore  of  Mull,  is 
Ulva,  whose  chief  was  the  hero  of  Campbell's  ballad, 
"  Lord  mini's  Daughter."  It  is  associated  with 
David  Livingstone,  whose  Gaelic  name  was  Macleay. 
His  great-grandfather  had  fought  at  Culloden  and 
retired  to  Ulva.  His  grandfather  emigrated  to  Lan- 
arkshire, where,  in  Blantyre,  Livingstone  was  born. 
Before  returning  to  Africa  for  the  last  time  he  visited 
Ulva,  but  was  disappointed  to  find  no  trace  of  any 
island  relatives  remaining. 


432     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

A  few  miles  to  the  southwest  of  Ulva  is  Staffa,  a 
small,  barren  island,  visited  yearly  by  thousands  of 
tourists,  who  are  attracted  thither  by  its  remarkable 
caves.  Of  these  the  most  celebrated  is  Fingal's 
Cave,  whose  wonderful  proportions  and  towering 
pillars  of  black  basalt,  worked  out  by  the  action  of 
the  sea,  have  been  eloquently  compared,  by  writers 
of  prose  and  poetry  alike,  to  some  great  temple  reared 
for  the  worship  of  the  Almighty,  while  the  surging  of 
the  Atlantic — 

"  From  the  high  vault  an  answer  draws, 
In  varied  tone,  prolong'd  and  high, 
That  mocks  the  organ's  melody." 

Some  six  or  eight  miles  south  of  Staffa,  and  sepa- 
rated from  the  Ross  of  Mull  by  Iona  Sound,  is  the 
Island  of  Iona. 

In  the  year  563  a  small  band  of  missionaries, 
crossing  over  from  Hibernia,  sailed  in  and  out  among 
the  closely-clustered  islands  lying  off  the  coast  that 
bounded  their  horizon  on  the  northeast.  In  time 
they  came  to  one  whose  fertile  aspect,  resembling  no 
doubt  the  green  shores  of  the  land  they  had  aban- 
doned, seemed  to  offer  the  asylum  of  which  they  were 
in  search.  Upon  this  they  landed,  and  there  was 
established  that  settlement  whose  beneficent  influences 
even  now,  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  thirteen  hun- 
dred years,  have  not  ceased  to  be  felt. 

The  leader  of  this  devoted  company  was  one  who, 


Fmgal's  Cave,  Isle  of  Staffa 


THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS. 


433 


on  a  later  occasion,  thus  describes  himself:  "I  am  a 
Scottish  pilgrim,  and  my  speech  and  actions  corre- 
spond to  my  name,  which  is  in  Hebrew  Jonah,  in 
Greek  Prehistera,  and  in  Latin  Columba,  a  dove." 

One  of  the  earliest  and  most  important  of  the 
converts  made  by  Columba  was  Brud,  King  of  the 
wild  Picts,  among  whom  the  missionaries'  labors 
were  for  the  most  part  to  lie,  the  Scots  it  is  stated 
having  already  become  Christianized. 

Brud  made  over  to  them  the  island  on  which  they 
had  landed,  now  called  Iona,1  and  they  forthwith  set 
about  erecting  a  church,  and  huts  to  live  in. 

Columba  had  evidently  been  through  some  trying 
experiences  before  he  adopted  the  monastic  life,  for  he 
refused  to  allow  cows  on  the  island  because  "  where 
there  is  a  cow  there  must  be  a  woman,  and  where 
there  is  a  woman  there  must  be  mischief." 

There  is  a  heathenish  story  connected  with  the  first 
buildings  erected  on  Iona  that  doubtless  originated  in 
the  fertile  brain  of  some  professor  of  the  old  religion. 
According  to  this  legend,  every  attempt  to  raise  walls 

1  The  name  Iona  is  another  of  the  historically  famous  mistakes.  It 
was  caused  originally  by  a  misprint  or  a  mistranscription  of  the  word 
"  Ioua."  The  original  name  was  Y,  I  or  Hi,  which  means  "  Island." 
In  Gaelic  it  is  known  as  Icolmkill,  i.  e.,  "the  Island  cell  of  Co- 
lumba." Ioua  is  believed  to  have  been  some  Erse  inflection  of  I, 
misunderstood  by  a  scribe  or  a  printer,  and  thus  arose  the  happy 
mistake  which  gave  this  musically-sounding  name. 

The  name  Hebrides  is  a  similar  mistake  of  a  printer  or  a  tran- 
scriber for  the  Ilebudes  of  Ptolemy. 
Vol.  II.— 28 


434     SCOTLAND,  HISTOKIC  AND  EOM ANTIC. 

was  futile ;  when  a  certain  height  was  reached  they 
always  fell  down.  At  last  it  was  revealed  to  Columba 
that  this  would  continue  until  a  human  being  should 
be  buried  alive  as  a  sacrifice.  Lots  were  cast  and  the 
choice  fell  upon  Oran,  one  of  the  brothers.  He  was 
duly  interred ;  but  after  three  days  Columba  could 
not  resist  the  temptation  to  see  how  he  looked.  As 
the  earth  was  removed  Oran  opened  his  eyes,  and 
fixing  them  upon  his  Superior,  observed,  "  There  is 
no  wonder  in  death,  and  hell  is  not  as  it  is  reported." 
Whereupon  Columba  hastily  threw  back  the  earth, 
exclaiming,  "  Earth  !  earth  on  the  mouth  of  Oran, 
that  he  may  tell  no  more  tales." 

The  cemetery  in  which  so  many  famous  personages 
have  been  laid  to  rest,  and  which  is  the  oldest  Chris- 
tian place  of  sepulture  in  Scotland,  is  dedicated  to 
Oran.  Here  all  the  Scottish  Kings  who  preceded 
Macbeth  were  buried,  as  well  as  a  number  of  royal 
personages  of  both  Ireland  and  Norway. 

All  of  the  Columban  buildings  have  long  since  dis- 
appeared, the  ruins  now  seen  on  the  island  belonging 
to  ecclesiastical  buildings  of  various  later  periods. 

Here  Columba  lived  and  labored  for  thirty-four 
years.  His  household,  which  gradually  increased 
until  it  numbered  a  hundred  and  fifty  monks,  was 
divided  into  three  Orders — the  Seniors,  whose  main 
business  was  to  officiate  in  religious  services  and  to 
transcribe  the  Scriptures;  the  Working  Brothers — 
tillers  of  the  soil  for  the  most  part  and  herdsmen,  but 


THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS. 


435 


who  also  conducted  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  estab- 
lishment ;  and  the  Alumni — youths  under  instruction. 
The  brothers  wore  white  tunics,  an  upper  garment  of 
natural  wool,  and  sandals,  and  shaved  the  entire  front 
part  of  the  head.  The  rule  of  life,  while  enjoining 
extreme  simplicity  and  temperance,  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  extreme  in  its  rigor. 

There  was  a  weekly  celebration  of  the  Holy 
Eucharist,  as  well  as  one  on  all  festivals,  and  the 
Wednesday,  Friday  and  Lenten  fasts  were  observed. 
In  doctrine  the  Church  of  Iona  was  identical  with 
that  of  Ireland,  from  which  it  sprang. 

The  account  Columba  and  his  companions  gave  of 
themselves  when  they  journeyed  to  Gaul  in  590  was  : 
"  We  be  men  who  receive  naught  beyond  the  doctrine  of 
the  evangelists  and  apostles.  The  Catholic  faith,  as  it 
was  first  delivered  by  the  successors  of  the  holy  apostles, 
is  still  maintained  among  us  with  unchanged  fidelity." 

St.  Columba  died  at  Iona  on  June  9,  597,  very 
early  in  the  morning.  Feeling  that  death  was  close 
at  hand,  he  had  gone  at  midnight  to  the  church  and 
stretched  himself  before  the  high  altar.  A  few 
hours  later  the  brethren,  summoned  by  the  ringing 
of  the  bell,  arrived  just  in  time  to  receive  the  bless- 
ing of  his  uplifted  hand  and  to  see  him  pass  peace- 
fully away.  He  was  in  the  seventy-seventh  year  of 
his  age  and  the  thirty-fifth  of  his  missionary  labors. 
Thirteen  hundred  years  have  gone  by,  and  his  works 
do  yet  follow  him. 


436     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  ROMANTIC. 

"  Small  and  mean  though  this  place  is,  yet  it  shall 
be  held  in  great  and  unusual  honour,  not  only  by  the 
Kings  of  the  Scots,  with  their  people,  but  also  by  the 
rulers  of  foreign  and  barbarous  nations,  and  by  their 
subjects ;  the  saints  also  of  other  churches  even  shall 
regard  it  with  no  common  reverence." 

Such  was  the  prophecy  which,  according  to  both 
of  his  early  biographers,1  Columba  uttered  on  the  eve- 
ning preceding  his  death,  standing  with  outstretched 
hands  upon  the  little  hill  above  the  monastery,  identi- 
fied with  that  now  called  Cnoc-an-bristeclach.2 

Just  two  hundred  years  later  the  peaceful  and 
useful  career  of  the  Iona  Monastery  was  rudely 
broken  in  upon.  In  794  the  Scandinavians  made 
their  first  piratical  descent  upon  the  Isles,  burning, 
pillaging  and  slaughtering.  After  repeated  visitations 
of  this  sort,  it  was,  in  814,  deemed  advisable  to  remove 
the  relics  of  Columba  to  some  place  of  greater  security. 
Part  therefore  were  taken  to  Kells,  in  Meath,  Ireland, 
and  the  remainder  to  Dunkeld.  At  a  later  period, 
when  new  buildings,  of  stone  and  more  securely 
placed,  were  built  on  Iona,  the  relics  were  brought 
back. 

There  is  no  actual  proof  that  the  traces  of  a  still 
older  building,  seen  to-day  among  the  ruins  of  the 

1  Cumraene,  Abbot  of  Iona,  about  sixty  years  after  Columba's 
death ;  and  Adamnan,  who  was  born  twenty-seven  years  after  his 
death. 

2  See  Skene's  Celtic  Scotland. 


THE  WESTERN  ISLANDS. 


437 


Benedictine  Monastery  at  Iona,  are  a  part  of  these 
first  erections  in  stone ;  but  it  is  very  likely  that  they 
are,  and  the  site  at  all  events  is  almost  certainly  the 
same. 

The  late  (seventh)  Duke  of  Argyll,  shortly  before 
his  death  in  the  spring  of  1900,  gifted  the  ecclesi- 
astical ruins  at  Iona,  to  be  held  in  trust  for  the 
Church  of  Scotland. 

The  buildings  are  to  be  held  inalienably  for  the 
purposes  of  public  worship  by  Presbyterian  form ; 
and  the  sum  of  £20,000  is  to  be  raised  by  subscrip- 
tion to  pay  for  their  restoration,  and  to  defray  other 
necessary  expenses. 

This  brief  notice  of  a  spot  whose  continuity  of 
interest  links  the  Scotland  of  to-day  with  the  very 
dawn  of  her  history  is  an  appropriate  point  at  which 
to  bring  to  a  close  our  survey  of  some  of  her  localities 
most  renowned  in  History  and  Romance;  a  survey 
whose  aim  has  been  throughout  rather  to  arouse  inter- 
est than  to  satisfy  it.  Indeed  an  adequate  presentation 
of  the  subject  demands  and  has  in  some  measure 
received  a  definite  proportion  of  English  literature. 

The  character  and  customs  of  the  Scottish  people, 
their  habits  of  thought  and  speech,  their  unconquer- 
able love  of  liberty  and  freedom  of  action,  and  a 
chivalrous  loyalty  which  heeds  neither  suffering  nor 
poverty,  have  together  tended  to  produce  a  national 
ideal  which  is  a  distinct  picture  in  human  history. 
Neither  the  diversities  of  Cavalier  and  Calvinist, 


438     SCOTLAND,  HISTORIC  AND  KOM ANTIC. 

Catholic  and  Covenanter,  or  Chief  and  Laird  have 
eradicated  it  or  even  blurred  its  outline.  It  has  sur- 
vived nearly  two  centuries  of  political  union  with 
England,  including  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment from  the  ancient  capital  to  London,  and  it 
remains  unimpaired  by  the  even  more  levelling  influ- 
ences of  the  modern  methods  of  commerce  and  com- 
munication. It  is,  in  short,  difficult  to  conceive  of  its 
extinction  by  anything  less  than  the  obliteration  of 
civilization  itself. 

This  intense  national  spirit,  always  dignified  and 
earnest,  sometimes  proud  and  cruel,  often  tender  and 
true,  has  reproduced  and  realized  itself  in  a  mass  of 
chronicles  and  traditions,  law,  religion  and  architect- 
ure, which  present  a  field  in  the  realm  of  purely 
human  interest  unsurpassed  by  any  country  of  modern 
times. 


INDEX. 


Abbotsford,  i.  250. 
Aberbrothwick,  ii.  182. 
Abercorn,  i.  164. 
Aberdeen,  ii.  193. 
Aberfeldy,  ii.  354. 
Abergeldie  Castle,  ii.  207. 
Aboyne  Castle,  ii.  206. 
Aboyne,  Lord,  ii.  206. 
Acadia,  i.  71. 

Account  of  a  Tour  in  Scotland,  i. 
186. 

Account  of  Mr.  Gibb,  Master  of 

the  Household,  ii.  312. 
Achaius,  John,  ii.  81. 
Achanduin  Castle,  ii.  413. 
Achnacarry  Castle,  ii.  298. 
Ackergill  Tower,  ii.  274. 
Adam,  Robert,  ii.  230. 
Admirable  Crichton,  i.  348. 
Advocates'  Library,  Edinburgh, 

i.  126. 
jEueid,  i.  15. 

Agnew,  Sir  Andrew,  i.  397  ;  ii. 
348. 

A  History  of  the  Highlands,  ii. 
262. 

Aidan,  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  i. 
240. 

Ailsa  Crag,  ii.  17. 

Aird's  Moss,  i.  349,  388. 

A  Legend  of  Montrose,  ii.  188, 

299,  363,  369. 
u  A  Lockerbie  lick,"  i.  325. 
"  A  Lowden  [Lothian]  Sabbath 

Morn,"  i.  179. 
Albany  aisle,  Church  of  St.  Giles, 

Edinburgh,  i.  10. 
Albany,  Alexander,  Duke  of,  i. 

17. 

Albany,  Robert,  Duke  of,  i.  217, 

356  ;  ii.  158,  357. 
Albemarle,  George  Monk,  Duke 

of,  i.  199,  220. 

439 


Alexander  I.,  i.  7 ;  ii.  128,  235, 

356,  383. 
Alexander  II.,  i.  243,  338;  ii.  410. 
Alexander  III.,  i.  7,  262,  265,  338 ; 

ii.  1,  155. 
Alexander,  Sir  William,  of  Men- 

strie,  i.  70,  194;  ii.  133. 
Alloa,  ii.  141. 
Alloway,  ii.  43. 
Alloway  Kirk,  ii.  45. 
Altrieve,  i.  286. 
Ancaster,  Earl  of,  ii.  374. 
Ancrum  Moor,  battle  of,  i.  245. 
Anderson,  Robert,  i.  222. 
"  Angelical  Thomas,"  i.  78. 
Angus,  Archibald,  Earl  of  (Bell- 

the-Cat),  i.  23,  35,  156,  205,  215, 

244,  246;  ii.  59,  60,  62. 
Angus,  Archibald,  (eighth)  Earl 

of,  ii.  63. 
Annals  of  Scotland,  ii.  137. 
Annan,  i.  310. 

Annandale,  Robert  Bruce,  Lord 

of,  i.  337,  339. 
Anne,  Duchess  of  Buccleuch  and 

Monmouth,  i.  247. 
Anne  of  Denmark,  i.  58. 
Anne,  Queen,  i.  19,  80,  85;  ii.  64. 
Ann  Street,  Edinburgh,  i.  142. 
Antiquities  of  Scotland,  ii.  45. 
Anwoth  Church,  i.  379. 
Appin,  ii.  415. 
Arbuthnot,  Dr.  John,  i.  202. 
Arbroath,  ii.  182. 
Architecture,  city,  i.  21. 
Ardchonnel  Castle,  ii.  410. 
Ardoch,  ii.  375. 
Ardrishaig,  ii.  408. 
Ardrossan  Castle,  ii.  4. 
Ardstinchar  Castle,  ii.  20. 
Ardtornish,  ii.  413. 
Ardwell,  i.  381,  397. 
Argyll,  Duke  of,  i.  89,  92. 


440 


INDEX. 


Argyll,  Earl  of,  i.  33,  157,  168. 
Argyll,  Marquis  of,  i.  69,  74. 
Argyll,     Archibald  Campbell, 

(fourth)  Earl  of,  ii.  390. 
Argyll,     Archibald  Campbell, 

(seventh)  Earl  of,  ii.  390. 
Argyll,     Archibald  Campbell, 

(ninth)  Earl  of,  ii.  391. 
Argyll,     Archibald  Campbell, 

(tenth)  Earl  of,  ii.  392. 
Argyll,     Archibald  Campbell, 

Marquis  of,  ii.  34.  298. 
Argyll,  George  William,  (sixth) 

Duke  of,  ii.  118. 
Argyll,  John,  (fifth)  Duke  of,  ii. 

393. 

Argyll's  Lodging,  Stirling,  ii.  133. 
Arisaig,  ii.  286. 
Armour,  Jean,  ii.  49. 
Armstrong,  Johnnie,  i.  306. 
Armstrong,  William,  i.  307. 
Arnault,  Dr.,  i.  268. 
Arnot,  Hugo,  i.  16,  67. 
Arran,  ii.  398. 

Arran,  James  Hamilton,  Earl  of, 

i.  38,  156,  225,  228  ;  ii.  76. 
Arthur,  Kin^r,  i.  240. 
Articles  of  Union,  i.  87. 
Arundel,  Earl  of,  i.  210. 
Ashestiel,  i.  249. 

Assembly  Hall  of  the  Free 
Church,  Edinburgh,  i.  120. 

Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, opening  ceremonies  of,  ii. 
121. 

Associated  Lords,  i.  212. 
Atholl,  ii.  339. 

Atholl,    John    de  Strathbogy, 

(tenth)  Earl  of,  ii.  339. 
Atholl,  Patrick,  (sixth)  Earl  of, 

ii.  293. 

Atholl,  Robert  Stewart,  Earl  of, 
ii.  24. 

Atholl,  Walter  Stewart,  Earl  of, 

ii.  378. 
Auchin  Castle,  i.  342. 
Auchindoun  Castle,  ii.  231. 
Auchinleck  Castle,  ii.  21. 
Auchmithie,  ii.  183. 
"  Auld  Brigo'  Balgounie,"  ii.  205. 
"  Auld  Reekie."  i.  1. 
"Auld  Robin  Gray,"  ii.  176. 
"  Auld  Wat,"  i.  247,  277,  289,  291. 
Auldearn,  battle  of,  ii.  245. 


Ayr,  ii.  1. 

Aytoun,  William  Edmonstoune, 
ii.  41. 

Aytoun,  William,  i.  55. 

Radenoch,  ii.  286,  307. 
Baillie,  Joanna,  ii.  412. 
Baillie,  Lady  Grizel,  i.  232. 
Baillie,  Robert,  of  Jerviswood,  i. 

234 ;  ii.  38. 
Baird,  Sir  David,  i.  106. 
Baird's  Close,  Edinburgh,  i.  103. 
Balcarres,  i.  105  ;  ii.  176. 
Balcleuch,  i.  280. 
Balcleugh,  i.  280. 
Baldoon  Castle,  i.  389. 
Balfluig  House,  ii.  211. 
Balfour,  David,  i.  219 ;  ii.  126, 337. 
Balfour,  Sir  Gilbert,  ii.  281. 
Balfour,  Sir  James,  i.  44. 
Ballantyne,  James,  ii.  364,  365. 
Ballantyne,  James,  &  Co.,  i.  255. 
Ballingear  House,  i.  377. 
Balliol  College,  i.  339,  364. 
Balliol,  Edward,  i.  310;  ii.  375. 
Balliol,  King  John,  i.  332,  339, 

340,  372;  ii.  3,  382. 
Balloch  Castle,  ii.  358. 
Ballone  Castle,  ii.  254. 
Balmacaan,  ii.  296. 
Balmaclellan,  i.  378. 
Balmerino  Abbey,  ii.  161. 
Balmerino,  Earl  of,  ii.  336. 
Balmoral,  ii.  207. 
Balvenie  Castle,  ii.  232. 
Bane,  Donald,  i.  4. 
Banff,  ii.  230. 
Bank  of  England,  i.  84. 
Bankton  House,  i.  223. 
Bannachra  Castle,  ii.  120. 
Bannockburn,  battle  of,  i.  154, 

210,  342  ;  ii.  135. 
Barbour,   Archdeacon  John,  i. 

382;  ii.  56,  58,  115,  136,  351, 

399. 

Bargany,  ii.  20. 

Barnaby  Budge,  ii.  200. 

Barnard,  Lady  Anne,  i.  105. 

Barnbougle,  i.  165. 

Baronets  of  Nova  Scotia,  i.  70. 

Barra,  battle  of,  ii.  214. 

Barra  Island,  ii.  428. 

Bass  Rock,  Edinburgh,  i.  141.  217. 

"Bastard  of  Arran,"  the,  ii.  71. 


INDEX. 


441 


Bastone,  friar,  ii.  136. 

"  Batabel,or  threip  lands,"  i.  305. 

Battles — 

Ancrum  Moor,  i.  245. 

Auldearn,  ii.  245. 

Bannockburn,   i.   154,  210, 
342  ;  ii.  135. 

Barra,  ii.  214. 

Bothwell  Bridge,  i.  77. 

Bothwell  Brig,  ii.  37. 

Carberry  Hill,  i.  169. 

Carbisdale,  ii.  258. 

Cullodcn,  ii.  317. 

Dunbar,  i.  72,  213,  240. 

Dupplin,  ii.  375. 

Falkirk,  i.  160,  341 ;  ii.  7, 
137,  138. 

Flodden,  i.  20,  155,  166. 

Halidon  Hill,  i.  191,  293. 

Hamildon,  i.  356. 

Killiecrankie,  ii.  347. 

Largs,  ii.  1. 

Linlitbgovv,  i.  156. 

Loudon  Hill,  ii.  16. 

Nevill's  Cross,  i.  6. 

Otterburn,  i.  354. 

Preston,  i.  89;  ii.  30. 

Prestonpans,  i.  101,  222. 

Rosslyn,  i.  189. 

Sauchie  Burn,  i.  230. 

Solway  Moss,  i.  157,  189,306, 
308. 

Standard,  i.  352. 
Stirling,  i.  341;  ii.  129. 
Stirling  Ridge,  ii.  7. 
Worcester,  ii.  32. 

"  Bear  of  Bradwardine,"  ii.  182. 

"  Beardie,"  i.  247. 

Beaton,  Archbishop  James,  ii. 
83, 134,  165,  172. 

Beaton,  Cardinal  David,  i.  24, 
228;  ii.  83,  165,  167. 

Beatrice,  i.  142. 

Beaufort  Castle,  ii.  292. 

Beauly,  ii.  286. 

Beauly  Firth,  ii.  292. 

Beauly  River,  ii.  292. 

Beck,  Anthony,  Bishop  of  Dur- 
ham, i.  219. 

"  Beech  Tree's  Petition,"  i.  382. 

Belhaven,  Lord,  i.  88. 

"  Bell-the-Cat,"  Earl  of  Angus, 
i.  23,  35,  156,  205,  215,  244,  246 ; 
i.  59,  60,  62. 


Bellenden,  John,  i.  11  ;  ii.  99. 

Beltane,  holiday,  i.  299. 

Ben  Cruachan,  ii.  356. 

Ben  Lawers,  ii.  356. 

Ben  Nevis,  ii.  304. 

Ben  Vorlich,  ii.  361. 

Benbecula,  ii.  428. 

Berriedale,  Lord,  ii.  273. 

Berwickshire,  i.  229. 

"  Bibler's  seat,"  Edinburgh  Cas- 
tle, i.  120. 

Biggar,  ii.  69. 

Binnock,  William,  i.  153. 

Binns  Castle,  i.  163. 

Birnam  Hill,  ii.  353. 

Birnie,  ii.  239. 

Birsay  Palace,  ii.  276. 

Bisset,  John,  of  Lovat,  ii.  292. 

Bisset,  William,  ii.  293. 

Black  Acts  of  1584,  i.  52. 

"  Black  Agnes,"  i.  210. 

Black  Bull  Inn,  i.  175. 

"Black  Dinner,  i.  11,  205,  336, 
358. 

"  Black  Douglas,"  ii.  56,  58,  59. 
Black  Duncan  of  the  Cowl,  ii.  358. 
Black  Dwarf,  i.  299. 
Black  Friars'  Monastery,  Perth, 

ii.  377. 
Black  Isle,  ii.  250. 
"  Black  Knight  of  Liddesdale," 

i.  8. 

Black  Knight  of  Lorn,  ii.  341. 
Black  Knight  of  Rhodes,  ii.  409. 
Black  Morrow  Wood,  i.  366. 
Black  Murray,  i.  366. 
"  Black  Rood,"  i.  4,  6. 
Black  Watch  Regiment,  ii.  354. 
Blackadder.  Bishop,  ii.  83. 
Blackford  Hill,  i.  20,  177. 
Blackfriars  Street,  Edinburgh,  i. 
23,  47. 

Blackfriars  Wynd,  Edinourgh,  i. 
47. 

Blackhouse,  i.  291, 
Blackhouse  Tower,  i.  289. 
Blackie,  John  Stuart,  i.  138,  143. 
Black  lock,  Thomas,  ii.  50. 
Blackness  on  the  Forth,  i.  163. 
Blackwood,  William,  i.  113. 
Blackwood's  Magazine,  i.  112. 
Blaikie,  W.  B.,  i.  159.  160,  236; 

ii.  99,  143,  300,  313,  381. 
Blair  Atholl,  ii.  344. 


442 


INDEX. 


Blair  Castle,  ii.  344. 
Blair's  Close,  Edinburgh,  i.  106. 
"  Blind  Harry,"  ii.  4. 
"  Bloodv  Claverse,"  ii.  41. 
"  Blue  Blanket,"  i.  18. 
Blue  Bell  Hotel,  i.  332. 
Boece,  Hector,  i,  11,  155 ;  ii.  99, 
204. 

"  Bold  Buccleuch,"  i.  301. 
Bonalv,  i.  178. 

Boniface  VIII.,  Pope,  i.  322  ;  ii. 
117. 

"  Bonnie  Bell  Gordon,"  ii.  257. 
"  Bonny  Dundee,"  i.  84 ;  ii.  41. 
Book  of  Common  Order,  i.  62. 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  i.  62. 
Book  of  Discipline,  i.  51. 
Book  of  Glasgow  Cathedral,  ii.  84. 
Borradale,  ii.  301. 
Borthwick,  i.  206. 
Borthwick,  Sir  William,  i.  206. 
Boston,  Thomas,  i.  288. 
Boswell,  James,  i.  190 ;  ii.  21,  25, 

185,  393,  430. 
Bothwell,  Bishop  Adam,  ii.  132. 
Bothwell  Bridge,  battle  of,  i.  77. 
Bothwell  Brig,  i.  388. 
Bothwell  Brig,  battle  of,  ii.  37. 
Bothwell  Castle,  ii.  71. 
Bothwell,  Francis  Stewart,  Earl 

of,  i.  279. 
Bothwell,  James  Hepburn,  Earl 

of,  i.  37,  40,  42,  168,  206,  212, 

221,  266,  267,  268. 
Bothwell,  Patrick,  Earl  of,  i.  198, 

205,  279  ;  ii.  72. 
"  Bowed  Davie,"  i.  299. 
Bower,  Alexander,  i.  266. 
Bower,  John,  i.  243,  244. 
Bowhead  Saints,  i.  77. 
Bowhill,  i.  250,  302. 
Boyd,  Rev.  Zacharv,  ii.  86. 
Boyd,  Sir  Thomas,  ii.  399. 
Bradfute,  Marian,  ii.  54,  69. 
Breadalbane,  Sir  John,  Earl  of, 

ii.  359,  415. 
Bride  of  Lammermoor,  i.  229,  371. 
"  Bride  of  Lammermoor,"  i.  394. 
Bridge  of  Bruar,  ii.  348. 
Bridge  of  Lauder,  i.  18. 
Bridge  Street,  Kelso,  i.  263. 
Brodick  Castle,  ii.  398. 
Brooch  of  Lorn,  ii.  410. 
Brown,  Charles  Armitage,  ii.  17. 


Brown,  Dr.  John,  i.  135,  142; 

ii.  366. 
Brown,  Gilbert,  i.  372. 
Brown,  Hume,  i.  11,  13,  19,  227, 

353. 

Brown,  John,  of  Priesthill,  ii.  40. 

Browne,  James,  ii.  262. 

Brougham  Act,  i.  309. 

Brougham,  Henry,  i.  110. 

Bruce,  King  Robert,  i.  6,  7,  154, 
210,  242,  243,  272,  322,  332,  337, 
339,  341,  364,  382,  383,  384,  385, 
386,  392;  ii.  3,  9,  12,  56,  82, 
114,  118,  135,  152,  210,  214,  247, 
362,  373,  382,  398,  409,  433. 

Bruce,  Laurence,  ii.  284. 

Bruce,  Nigel,  ii.  211. 

Bruces,  genealogy  of  the,  ii.  9. 

Bruce's  "  Testament,"  i.  266. 

Buccleuch  Castle,  i.  280,  281. 

Buccleuch,  Francis  Scott,  (sec- 
ond) Earl  of,  i.  199. 

Buccleuch,  Henry,  Duke  of,  i. 
203. 

Buccleuch  Place,  Edinburgh,  i. 
110. 

Buccleuch,  Walter,  (first)  Earl 

of,  i.  274. 
Buchan,  Comyn,  Earl  of,  ii.  214. 
Buchan,  James  Stewart,  Earl  of, 

i.  295. 

Buchan,  Shipley  Erskine,  (four- 
teenth) Earl  of,  i.  239. 

Buchanan,  George,  i.  44,  237  ;  ii. 
349. 

Buittle  Castle,  i.  364. 

Burke,  Edward,  ii.  319. 

Burn  Callenders  of  Prestonhall, 

i.  206. 

Burnet,  Bishop  Gilbert,  ii.  35. 
"  Burning  of  the  Barns  of  Ayr," 

ii.  5. 

Burntisland,  ii.  155. 

Burns,  Gilbert,  ii.  43,  48. 

Burns,  Robert,  i.  144,  181,  190, 
333,  334,  335,  364  ;  ii.  43,  44,  45, 
46,  47,  48,  49,  50,  51,  141,  297, 
356. 

Burns,  William,  ii.  43. 

Burton,  Dr.  Hill,  i.  165;  ii.  129, 

279,  346. 
Bute,  ii.  395. 

Bute  in  the  Olden  Time,  ii.  101. 
Bute,  John,  Earl  of,  ii.  396. 


INDEX. 


443 


Bute,  Sir  James  Stewart,  Earl  of, 
ii.  396. 

Byng,  Admiral  Sir  George,  i.  89. 
Byron,  Captain  John,  ii.  201. 
Byron,    George    Gordon  Noel, 
Lord,  i.  285  ;  ii.  201,  205. 

Cadell,  Robert,  ii.  365. 
Cadzow  Castle,  ii.  75. 
Caer  Lywarch-Ogg,  i.  320. 
Caerlaverock,  i.  322. 
Caerlaverock  Castle,  i.  326. 
Ceannmor,  Malcolm,  i.  320 ;  ii. 

177,  288,  375. 
Cairnbulg  Castle,  ii.  218. 
Caithness,  ii.  271. 
Caithness,  George,  Earl  of,  ii.  273. 
Calder  Castle,  ii.  247. 
Calderwood,  David,  i.  39. 
Caledonian  Canal,  ii.  287. 
Caledonian  Mercury,  i.  95. 
Callendar,  Earl  of,  n.  38. 
Calton  Hill,  Edinburgh,  i.  141, 

144. 

Calton  Jail,  Edinburgh,  i.  134, 
141. 

Cambuskenneth,  Abbey  of,  ii.  139. 
Cameron,  Bishop,  ii.  82. 
Cameron,  Donald,  of  Lochiel,  ii. 
302. 

Cameron,  Dr.  Archibald,  ii.  332. 
Cameron,  Rev.  John,  ii.  332. 
Cameron,  Richard,  i.  348,  349  ;  ii. 
37. 

Campbell,    Archibald,  (fourth) 

Earl  of  Argyll,  ii.  390. 
Campbell,  Archibald,  (seventh) 

Earl  of  Argyll,  ii.  390. 
Campbell,    Archibald,  (ninth) 

Earl  of  Argyll,  ii.  391. 
Campbell,     Archibald,  (tenth) 

Earl  of  Argyll,  ii.  392. 
Campbell,    Archibald,  Marquis, 

of  Argyll,  ii.  34,  298. 
Campbell  Castle,  ii.  142. 
Campbell,  Gillespie,  ii.  387,  410. 
Campbell,  John,  Lord  of  Loudon, 

ii.  28. 

Campbell   (Macgregor),  Robert, 
ii.  122. 

Campbell,  Primrose,  ii.  294. 
Campbell,  Sir  Colin,  of  Glen- 

orchy,  i.  206  ;  ii.  357, 
Campbell,  Sir  Hugh,  ii.  248. 


Campbell,  Sir  Neil,  ii.  340. 
Cauipbelltown,  ii.  401. 
Canada,  Viscount,  i.  70. 
Candida  Casa,  i.  391. 
Carina  Island,  ii.  429. 
Canonbie,  priory  of,  i.  306. 
Canongate,  Edinburgh,  i.  5. 
"  Canter  of  Coltbrig,"  i.  176. 
Carberry,  i.  42. 
Carberry  Hill,  i.  213,  226. 
Carberry  Hill,  battle  of,  i.  169. 
Carbisdale,  battle  of,  ii.  258. 
Cardeny,  Bishop,  ii.  351. 
Cardoness  Castle,  i.  380;  ii.  114. 
Cardross,  Shipley  Erskine,  Baron, 

i.  239. 

Cardross,  Lord,  ii.  38. 

Carlisle  Castle,  i.  307. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  i.  114,  142,  227, 
228,  314,  315,  316  ;  ii.  52. 

Carlyle's  Edinburgh  Life,  i.  115. 

Carmelite  Friars,  i.  165. 

Carraichael,  James,  i.  28. 

Carmichael,  Peter,  ii.  168. 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  i.  127. 

Caroline,  Queen,  i.  91. 

Carpenter,  Lord  George,  i.  264. 

Carrick  Castle,  ii.  394. 

Carrick,  Earl  of,  i.  150. 

Carscreugh  Castle,  i.  394. 

Carterhaugh,  i.  292. 

Cary,  Sir  Robert,  i.  58. 

"  Casket  Letters,"  i.  238. 

Cassilis  Castle,  ii.  19. 

Castle  Dangerous,  ii.  59,  67. 

Castle  Hill,  Edinburgh,  i.  5. 

Castle  Street,  Edinburgh,  i.  137. 

Castlemain  Castle,  i.  365. 

Castletown  of  Braemar,  ii.  208. 

Cathcart  Castle,  ii.  111. 

Catholic  Apostolic  Church,  i.  311. 

Catholic  Apostolic  Church,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  148. 

"  Cat's  Cradle,"  Edinburgh 
Castle,  i.  120. 

Cawdor  Castle,  ii.  247. 

Cellach,  Bishop,  ii.  165. 

Celtic  Scotland,  ii.  436. 

"  Chaldee  Manuscript,"  i.  113. 

Chalmers,  Dr.  Thomas,  i.  138;  ii. 
91. 

Chalmers,  George,  ii.  100. 
Chambers,  Robert,  i.  94, 103,200; 

ii.  171,  200,  263,  285,  317. 


444 


INDEX. 


Chambers,  Dr.  William,  i.  123. 

Chambers,  William,  i.  297. 

Chanonry,  ii.  250. 

Chanson  de  Roland,  ii.  119. 

Chapel  of  St.  John  the  Evangel- 
ist, Church  of  St.  Giles,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  14. 

Chapel  of  St.  Magdalen,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  32. 

Chapel  of  St.  Margaret,  Edin- 
burgh Castle,  i.  117. 

Chapel  of  the  Holy  Blood, 
Church  of  St.  Giles,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  14. 

Cnarles  I.,  i.  60,  66,  225,  303,  378; 
ii.  27,  29,  64,  67,  368,  390. 

Charles  II.,  i.  67,  133,  150,  218, 
349  ;  ii.  31,  37,  178,  383. 

Charles  X.,  i.  133. 

Charlotte  Square,  Edinburgh,  i. 
137. 

Charlotte  Street,  Edinburgh,  i. 
137. 

Charteris,  Colonel  Francis,  i.  201. 
Chatelherault,  Duke  of,  i.  157. 
Chepman,  Walter,  i.  14. 
Chichester,  Lord,  i.  67. 
Chi-Rho  Monogram,  i.  397. 
Christie,  James,  i.  113. 
Christie  Johnstone,  i.  150. 
Chronicles  of  Scotland,  ii.  99. 
Chronicles  of  the  Canongate,  ii. 
218. 

Chronicles  of  the  Camming  Club, 
i.  146. 

"  Chronicle  of  Walter  of  Exeter," 

i.  321. 
Ciar  Mohr,  ii.  123. 
Cistercians,  Order  of,  241,  393. 
Clackmanan,  ii.  141. 
Clapperton,  Hugh,  i.  311. 
Clarty  Hole,  i.  250. 
"  Cleanse  the  Causeway,"  i.  23. 
Clement,  Bishop,  ii.  371. 
Clifford,  Sir  Robert,  ii.  55. 
Closeburn  Castle,  i.  336. 
"  Cluny's  Cage,"  ii.  332. 
Clydesdale,  William  de  Hazelrig, 

Earl  of,  ii.  55. 
Cochrane,  Robert,  ii.  59. 
"  Cock  of  the  North,"  ii.  198. 
Cockburn,  Henry  Thomas,  Lord, 

i.  16,  108,  109,  111,  113,  118, 

125,  145,  174,  178 ;  ii.  238. 


Cockburn,  Mrs.,  i.  103. 
Cockpen,  i.  203. 
Coldingham,  i.  230. 
Coldingham,  priory  of,  i.  230. 
Colin  ton,  i.  179. 
Coll  Island,  ii.  430. 
Collection  of  Prose  and  Verse,  ii. 
44. 

College  of  Justice,  i.  25. 

College  of  Physicians  of  Edin- 
burgh, i.  51. 

College  Wynd,  Edinburgh,  i.  129. 

Collegiate  Church  and  Hospital 
of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  15. 

"  Colonel  Anne,"  ii.  311. 

Colonsay,  ii.  408. 

Colquhoun,  Sir  Humphrey,  of 
Luss,  ii.  120. 

Colquhoun,  Sir  John,  of  Luss,  ii. 
119. 

"  Come  under  my  Plaidie,"  i.  190. 
Comyn,  John,  the  Red,  i.  341. 
Comyns,  the,  i.  7. 
Confederate  Lords,  i.  42,  44. 
Congregational  Hall,  Edinburgh, 
i.  16. 

"  Conquering  Graeme,"  ii.  41. 
Constable,  Archibald,  i.  108,  113, 
174. 

Constable,  Thomas,  i.  174. 
Constable  &  Co.,  i.  255. 
Constable's    Tower,  Edinburgh 

Castle,  i.  117. 
"  Conventicles,"  i.  75  ;  ii.  35. 
Cope,  General  Sir  John,  i.  97, 

100,  222,  224;  ii.  306. 
Corgarff  Castle,  ii.  211. 
Corrievrechan,  whirlpool,  ii.  407. 
Corsindar  Castle,  ii.  212. 
Corstorphine,  i.  98. 
Corstorphine  Hill,  i.  176. 
Coutts,  Peggy,  ii.  206. 
Coutts,  Thomas,  ii.  185. 
Covenanters,  i.  76. 
Cowal,  ii.  394. 
Cowgate,  Edinburgh,  i.  15. 
Craig  Castle,  ii.  210. 
Craig,  John,  i.  42. 
Craigcrook  Castle,  i.  174. 
Craigenputtock,  i.  115,  317. 
Craigievar  Castle,  ii.  210. 
Craiermillar  Castle,  i.  166. 
Craignethan  Castle,  ii.  71. 


INDEX. 


445 


Craik,  William,  i.  367. 
Crail,  ii.  175. 

Craufurd,  Captain  Thomas,  ii.  26. 

Craufurd,  Thomas,  of  Jordan- 
hill,  ii.  113. 

Crawar,  Paul,  ii.  166. 

Crawford,  Earl  of,  i.  360 ;  ii.  355. 

Crichton,  "  Admirable,"  i.  347. 

Crichton  Castle,  i.  204. 

Crichton,  Lord,  of  Sanquhar,  i. 
324. 

Crichton,  Robert,  i.  346. 
Crichton,  Sir  William,  i.  11,  204, 

357. 
Crieff;  ii.  372. 
Crinan  Canal,  ii.  408. 
Crinan  the  Thane,  ii.  350. 
Cromarty,  George,  (third)  Earl 

of,  ii.  257. 
Cromarty,  Lord,  ii.  336. 
Cromwell,  John,  i.  322. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  i.  55,  71,  72,  73, 

74,  213,  249,  297,378;  ii.  30,32, 

86,  289,  374. 
Crookston  Castle,  ii.  108. 
Cross  Church,  Peebles,  i.  297. 
Crossraguel  Abbey,  ii.  19. 
Cruggleton  Castle,  i.  390. 
Culdees,  Order  of,  ii.  350. 
Culloden,  battle  of,  ii.  317. 
Culquhanny  Castle,  ii.  211. 
Cumberland,  William  Augustus, 

Duke  of,  i.  133,  159,  246,  335. 
Cunningham,  Allan,  i.  334. 
Cupar,  ii.  162. 
Culzean  Castle,  ii.  17. 
Cuthbert,  Saint,  i.  241. 

Dacre,  Lord,  i.  271. 
Dalcross  Castle,  ii.  291. 
Dalgleish,  George,  i.  44. 
Dalhousie  Castle,  i.  203. 
Dalkeith  Castle,  i.  198. 
Dalkeith,  Countess  of,  i.  250. 
Dalmeny,  i.  165. 
Dairy,  ii.  362. 

Dalrymple,  Janet,  i.  389,  394. 
Dalrymple,  Lady,  i.  105. 
Dalrymple,  Sir  Hew,  i.  217. 
Dalrymple,  Sir  James,  i.  389. 
Dalrymple,  Sir  John,  i,  190;  ii. 
416. 

Dalzell,  General,  ii.  35. 
Dalzell,  Thomas,  i.  163. 


D'Angouleme,  Due,  i.  133. 
Darnaway  Castle,  ii.  242. 
Darnley,  Henry  Stuart,  Lord,  i. 

35,  269  ;  ii.  156. 
David  L,  i.  5,  162,  196,  241,  262, 

270,  306,  320,  336,  337,  352, 391 ; 

ii.  81,  100,  103,  140,  250,  371. 
David  II.,  i.  6,  364;  ii.  175. 
D  wid  Balfour,  i.  219 ;  ii.  126,  337. 
Davidson,  Betty,  ii.  44. 
De  Berri,  Due,  i.  133. 
De  Bondington,  Bishop  William, 

ii.  81. 

De  Capella,  Sir  John,  i.  167. 
De  Carrick,  Sir  Gilbert,  ii.  20. 
De  Chastelard,  Pierre,  ii.  155. 
De  Cheyne,  Sir  Reginald,  ii.  274. 
De  Franqueville,  Comte,  i.  197. 
De  Gordon,  Sir  John,  ii.  197. 
De  Hazelris:,  William,  Earl  of 

Clydesdale,  ii.  55. 
De  Home,  Sir  John,  i.  231. 
De  Irvine,  William,  ii.  206. 
De  Maccuswell,  Ewan,  i.  320. 
De  Montfort,  Yolande,  Comtesse, 

i.  265. 

De  Moravia,  Archibald,  i.  293. 
De  Moravia,  Gilbert,  ii.  210,  259. 
De  Moravia,  Richard,  ii.  260. 
De  Morville,  Sir  John,  ii.  25. 
De  Percy,  Henry,  ii,  15. 
De  Quincey,  Thomas,  i.  285. 
De  St.  George,  Chevalier,  ii.  215, 
381. 

De    Strathbogy,    John,  (tenth) 

Earl  of  Atholl,  ii.  339. 
Dean  Castle,  ii.  21. 
Debatable  Lands,  i.  305. 
Dechmont  Hill,  ii.  78. 
Deloraine,  i.  291. 
Deloraine,  William,  i.  291. 
Devorgilla,  wife  of  John  Balliol, 

i.  332,  339,  364,  371 ;  ii,  3. 
Dickens,  Charles,  ii.  200. 
Dickson,  Thomas,  i.  345;  ii.  56. 
Dingwall,  ii.  252. 
Dirleton  Castle,  i.  219. 
Dirlot  Castle,  ii.  272. 
Dog  Isle,  ii.  365. 
Don  Juan,  ii.  205. 
Donibristle  House,  ii.  153. 
Doon  Hill,  i.  213. 
Dornoch,  ii.  259. 
Douglas,  ii.  370. 


446 


INDEX. 


1 


Douglas,  ii.  55. 

Douglas,  Archibald  the  Grim, 
Earl  of,  i.  212,  310,  336,  355, 
364. 

Douglas,  Archibald,  the  Tine- 
man,  i.  356. 

Douglas,  Archibald,  (fifth)  Earl, 
ii.  59. 

Douglas,  Archibald,  (sixth)  Earl, 
ii.  62. 

Douglas,  Archibald,  of  Kilspin- 

die,  ii.  62. 
Douglas,  Lord  Angus,  ii.  60,  62. 
Douglas  brothers,  murder  of,  i. 

11,  357. 
Douglas  Castle,  ii.  55. 
"  Douglas  Cause,"  the,  ii.  64,  394. 
Douglas  Crag,  i.  290. 
Douglas  Crescent,  Edinburgh,  i. 

143. 

Douglas,  Gavin,  i.  15,  23;  ii.  61, 

352. 

Douglas,  Good  Sir  James,  i.  115, 

182,  260,  272,  354. 
Douglas,  Hugh,  of  Longniddry, 

i.  228. 

Douglas,  James,  Earl  of,  i.  354, 
361. 

Douglas,  James,  Earl  of  Avon- 
dale,  i.  358. 
Douglas,  James,  Earl  of  Morton, 

i.  198,  242. 
Douglas,  Lady  Jane,  ii.  64. 
Douglas,  Lady  Margaret,  i.  35, 

188,  277. 
"  Douglas  Larder,"  ii.  57. 
Douglas,  Margaret,  of  Drumlan- 

rig,  ii.  3. 
Douglas,  Marjory,  i.  212. 
Douglas,    Sir    Henry,  (tenth) 

Baron  St.  Clair  and  (second) 

Earl  of  Orkney,  i.  182. 
Douglas,  Sir  James,  i.  210. 
Douglas,  Sir  William,  i.  8,  354. 
Douglas,     Sir     William     ("  le 

Hardi  "),  i.  345;  ii.  55. 
Douglas,  William,  (eighth)  Earl, 

i.  358,  359,  360. 
Doune  Castle,  ii.  370. 
Dounreay  Castle,  ii.  272. 
Driminnor  Castle,  ii.  212. 
Drum  Castle,  ii.  205.  ^ 
Drumclog,  battle  of,  ii.  37. 
Drumlanrig  Castle,  i.  343. 


Drummelzier,  i.  240,  300. 
Drummelzier  Castle,  i.  300. 
Drummond  Castle,  ii.  373. 
Drummond,  Lady  Margaret,  ii. 
372. 

Drummond,  Lord  John,  ii.  184, 

310,  336. 
Drummond,  Major,  ii.  246. 
Drummond,  Malcolm,  ii.  373. 
Drummond  of  Hawthornden,  i. 

193. 

Drummond,  Sir  John,  i.  191. 
Drummond,  William,  i.  59,  190, 

191,  266. 
Drury,  Sir  W'illiam,  i.  45. 
Dryburgh  Abbey,  i.  237. 
Dry  hope  Burn,  i.  289. 
Du'art  Castle,  ii.  411. 
Duddingston,  i.  100,  102. 
Duff  House,  Banff,  ii.  230. 
Dumbarton  Castle,  ii.  112. 
Dumbartonshire,  ii.  118. 
Dumfries,  i.  332. 

Dunbar,  battle  of,  i.  72,  213,  340. 
Dunbar,  Bishop  Gavin,  ii.  203. 
Dunbar  Castle,  i.  209,  212. 
Dunbar,  Patrick,  (ninth)  Earl  of, 

i.  209,  210. 
Dunbar,  Sir  David,  i.  389. 
Dunbar,  William,  i.  19,  303. 
Dunbeath,  ii.  274. 
Dunblane,  ii.  371. 
Duncan,  Dr.,  i.  248,  319. 
Duncanson,  Major  Robert,  ii.  418. 
Dun  das  Castle,  i.  164. 
Dundas,  Colonel  Walter,  i.  73. 
Dundas,  Sir  Lawrence,  Earl  of 

Zetland,  ii.  276. 
Dundas,  Sir  Walter,  i.  165. 
Dundee,  ii.  177. 

Dundee,  Viscount,  i.  84 ;  ii.  37,  40, 

180,  345. 
Dundonald  Castle,  ii.  24. 
Dundrennan  Abbey,  i.  369. 
Dunegal  the  Celt,  i.  345. 
Dunfermline,  Abbey  of,  i.  4;  ii. 

151. 

Dunfermline,  Alexander  Seton, 

Earl  of,  i.  224. 
Dumfries-shire,  i.  305. 
Dun^lass  Castle,  ii.  117. 
Dunievaig  Castle,  ii.  406. 
Dunkeld,  ii.  349. 
Dunkeld  Cathedral,  ii.  350. 


INDEX. 


447 


Dunnottar  Castle,  ii.  190. 
Dunolly  Castle,  ii.  411. 
Dunoon  Castle,  ii.  394. 
Dunrobin  Castle,  ii.  261. 
Dunsinane,  ii.  354. 
Dunsky  Castle,  i.  398. 
Dunstaffnage  Castle,  ii.  411. 
Dunvegan  Castle,  ii.  286. 
Dupplin,  battle  of,  ii.  375. 
Dupplin  Castle,  ii.  375. 
Durness,  ii.  270. 
Dysart,  ii.  156. 

Earthen  Mound,  Edinburgh,  i. 
148. 

Ecclefechan,  i.  314. 
Ecclesiastical    Architecture  of 

Scotland,  ii.  203,  238. 
Ecgforth,  King  of  Northumbria, 

i.  241. 
Edenham,  i.  264. 
Edgar  yEthling,  i.  4. 
Edgar,  King,  ii.  178. 
Edgeworth,  Maria,  i.  151. 
Edinburgh,  i.  1. 
Edinburgh  Academy,  i.  145. 
Edinburgh  Castle,  i.  5. 
Edinburgh  Free  Library,  i.  127. 
Edinburgh  High  School,  i.  144. 
Edinburgh,  Past  and  Present,  i. 

126. 

Edinburgh  Review,  i.  109,  110, 

111. 
Ednam,  i.  264. 

Edward  I.,  i.  6,  153,  260,  321,322, 
338,  341 ;  ii.  7,  55, 129, 137,  178, 
252,  296,  382. 

Edward  II.,  i.  154,  210,  237  ;  ii. 
135,  211. 

Edward  III.,  i.  6,  8, 191,  211,  220; 

ii.  115,  375. 
Edward  IV.,  ii.  60. 
Edward  VII.,  i.  134;  ii.  103. 
Edwin,  King,  i.  3. 

"  Edwin  o'  Gordon,"  ii.  197. 

Egilshay  Island,  ii.  281. 

E^linton  Castle,  ii.  3. 

Eglinton,  Earl  of,  ii.  3. 

Ei-jg  Island,  ii.  429. 

El cho,  Lord,  i.  99;  ii.  336,  373. 

Elderslie,  ii.  111. 

Elgin,  ii.  234. 

Elgin  Cathedral,  ii.  237. 

Elibank,  i.  303. 


Elizabeth,  Queen,  i.  45,  276. 
Elliots  of  Stob,  i.  246. 
Ellisland,  i.  333. 
Elphinstone,  Bishop,  ii.  204. 
Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  i.  318. 
"  Engagement,"  the,  ii.  30. 
Erchless  Castle,  ii.  292. 
Eric  II.,  King  of  Norway,  i.  338. 
Errol,  Earl  of,  ii.  215. 
Erskine,  Elizabeth,  Lady  Napier, 
i.  171. 

Erskine,  James  Francis  Harvey 
St.  Clair,  Earl  of  Rosslyn,  i. 
189. 

Erskine,  John,  Earl  of  Mar,  i. 
237. 

Erskine,  Shipley,  (fourteenth) 
Earl  of  Buehan  and  Baron 
Cardross,  i.  239. 

Erskine,  Sir  Robert,  ii.  130. 

Esmond,  ii.  78. 

Estates,  the,  i.  87. 

Ethie  House,  ii.  183. 

"  Ettrick  Shepherd  "  (see  Hogg, 
James). 

Ettrick  Water,  i.  291,  303. 

Evers,  Lord,  i.  244. 

Falaise,  treaty  of,  i.  7. 
Fair  Island,  ii.  282. 
Fair  Maid  of  Galloway,  i.  357, 
363. 

Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  i.  357. 
Fairburn  Castle,  ii.  251. 
"Fairest    Maid     on  Devon's 

Banks,"  i.  334. 
Fairuington,  i.  259. 
Falkirk,  battle  of,  i.  160,  341;  ii. 

7,  137,  138. 
Falkland  Palace,  ii.  157. 
Fall  of  Foyers,  ii.  296. 
Falls  of  Bran,  ii.  354. 
Falls  of  Moness,  ii.  356. 
Fast  Castle,  i.  229. 
Feam  Abbey,  ii.  253. 
Ferguson,  Sir  Adam,  i.  299. 
Fernieherst,  i.  271. 
Fettes  College,  Edinburgh,  i.  146. 
"  Field-preachings,"  ii.  35. 
Fingal's  Cave,  ii.  432. 
Ferintosh,  ii.  251. 
"  First-footing,"  i.  104. 
Firth  of  Clyde,  ii.  394. 
I  Firth  of  Forth,  Edinburgh,  i.  141. 


448 


INDEX. 


Firth  of  Tay,  ii.  356. 
Fishwives,  i.  149. 
Fitzalan,  Walter,  ii.  103. 
Fleming,  Malcolm,  Lord,  i.  11 ; 
ii.  69. 

Flodden,  battle  of,  i.  20,  155,  166. 
"  Flodden  wall,"  i.  21. 
Floors  Castle,  i.  262. 
"  Flower  of  Chivalry,"  i.  8. 
"  Flower  of  Yarrow,"  i.  247,  289, 
292. 

Forbes  Castle,  ii.  212. 
Forbes,  Duncan,  of  Culloden,  i. 
202. 

Forbes,  Duncan,  ii.  252,  290. 

Forbes,  Sir  William,  i.  61,  129. 

Forbes,  William,  of  Menie,  ii.  210. 

Forrester,  Thomas,  i.  243. 

Fort  Augustus,  ii.  297. 

Fort  George,  ii.  292. 

Fort  William,  ii.  304. 

Forteviot,  ii.  375. 

Forth  Bridge,  Edinburgh,  i.  149. 

Fortrose,  ii.  250. 

Fortunes  of  Nigel,  ii.  210. 

Foyers  River,  ii.  296. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  ii.  88. 

Fraser  Castle,  ii.  209. 

Fraser,  Simon,  Lord  Lovat,  i. 

203  ;  ii.  293. 
Fraser,  Sir  William,  ii.  254. 
Fraserburgh,  ii.  218. 
Fraser 's  Magazine,  i.  318. 
Frederick  Street,  Edinburgh,  i. 

137. 

Frederick  the  Great,  ii.  216. 
Free  Church  of  Scotland,  i.  138. 
Free  Masons,  ii.  26. 
Frendraught  Castle,  ii.  224. 
Freskin,  Hugh,  ii.  260. 
Freuchie,  ii.  243. 
Froissart,  Jean,  ii.  115. 
Fyvie  Castle,  Aberdeenshire,  i. 

224;  ii.  223. 
Fyvie,  Alexander  Seton,  Lord,  i. 

224 ;  ii.  223. 

Galabank  House,  i.  310. 

Galashiels,  i.  258. 

Galdenoch  Castle,  i.  395. 

Galdus,  King,  i.  382. 

"  Gallant  Claverhouse,"  ii.  41. 

Galloway,  i.  352. 

Galloway,  Alan,  Lord  of,  i.  370. 


Galloway,  Ancient  and  Modem, 
i.  371. 

Galloway,  Fergus,  Lord  of,  i.  353. 

Galloway  House,  i.  390. 

"  Galloway,  John,"  i.  280. 

Galloway,  John  Balliol,  Lord  of, 
i.  339,  340. 

Galvegians,  i.  352. 

Gardiner,  Colonel  James,  i.  222. 

Garryhorn,  i.  376. 

Gartland  Tower,  i.  397. 

Gataker  on  Lots  and  on  the  Chris- 
tian Watch,  ii.  430. 

"  Gay  Gordons,"  ii.  197. 

Gay,  John,  i.  96. 

Geddes,  Jenny,  i.  63. 

Genealogical  Magazine,  ii.  143. 

George  I.,  i.  328. 

George  III.,  i.  136;  ii.  396. 

George  IV.,  i.  133. 

George  IV.  Bridge,  Edinburgh, 

i.  32,  127. 

George  Square,  Edinburgh,  i. 
129. 

George  Street,  Edinburgh,  i.  137, 
142. 

"  Gentle  Shepherd,"  i.  181 ;  ii.  25. 
Geothe,  Johann  Wolfgang,  i.  115. 
Gibbon,  Charles,  i.  283. 
Gipsies,  first  appearance  of  in 

Scotland,  i.  264,  265. 
Girnigoe  Castle,  ii.  272. 
Girth  Cross,  Edinburgh,  i.  132. 
Gladstones,  John,  ii.  69. 
Gladstone,  William  Ewart,  i.  130; 

ii.  69. 

Glamis  Castle,  ii.  180. 

Glasgow,  ii.  79. 

Glasgow  and  its  Clubs,  ii.  93. 

Glasgow  Cathedral,  ii.  84. 

Glen  AfFrick,  ii-.  286. 

Glen  of  Rothes,  ii.  240. 

Glen  Trool,  i.  382. 

"  Glenara,"  ballad,  ii.  412. 

Glenbucket  Castle,  ii.  211. 

Glencairn,  Earl  of,  i.  33. 

Glenelg,  ii.  286. 

Glengarry,  ii.  286. 

Gienluce  Abbey,  i.  393. 

Glenlyon,  ii.  360. 

Glenorchy,  ii.,  409. 

Goldsmiths,  trade  customs  of,  i. 

53. 
Golf,  i.  81. 


INDEX. 


449 


Golfing  links,  ii.  174. 
"  Good  King  Robert's  testament," 
i.  8. 

"  Goose-pie  "  house,  Edinburgh, 
i.  95. 

Gordon,  Catherine,  ii.  201. 
Gordon,  Duke  of,  i.  83. 
Gordon,  Edward,  i.  376. 
Gordon,  John,  i.  379. 
Gordon,  Lady  Jane,  i.  42. 
Gordon,  Lady  Jean,  i.  208 ;  ii.  197. 
Gordon,  Lord  George,  ii.  200. 
Gordon,  Sir  John,  ii.  195. 
Gordon,  Sir  Robert,  ii.  273. 
Gowrie  conspiracy,  i.  229 ;  ii.  379. 
Gowrie,  Lord  Ruthven,  Earl  of, 

i.  219. 

Gowrie,  William  Ruthven,  Earl 
of,  ii.  379. 

Goudielands,  Hawick,  i.  275. 

Gould,  R.  F.,  ii.  26. 

Graeme,  Roland,  i.  1. 

Graham,  James,  Marquis  of  Mon- 
trose, i.  171,  293,  294;  ii.  29, 
186,  258,  345. 

Graham,  John,  i.  84. 

Graham,  John,  of  Claverhouse, 

ii.  37,  40,  180,  345. 
Graham,  Sir  John,  of  Abercorn, 

ii.  138. 

Graham,  Sir  Robert,  ii.  377. 
Grange,  Lady,  ii.  425. 
Grange,  Lord,  ii.  426. 
"  Granite  City,"  the,  ii.  193. 
Grant  Castle,  ii.  243. 
Granton,  Edinburgh,  i.  149. 
Gray,  Sir  Patrick,  i.  359. 
Gray,  Sir  William,  i.  105. 
Great  Hall,  Edinburgh  Castle,  i, 
117. 

Greenock,  ii.  98. 

Gregory,  David,  ii.  127. 

Gregory,  James,  ii.  126. 

Gregory,  William,  ii.  128. 

"  Gregory's  stomachic  powders," 

ii.  127. 
Gretna  Green,  i.  309. 
Grey,  Lady  Jane,  i.  33. 
Greyfriars'  Church,  Edinburgh, 

ii.  28. 

Greyfriars'    Churchyard,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  129. 
Grierson  of  Lag,  i.  376. 
Grose,  Francis,  ii.  45. 

Vol.  II.— 29 


"  Gudeman  of  Ballengeich,"  ii. 
131. 

Guest,  General,  i.  99,  103. 
"  Guid  Archibald,"  ii.  63. 
Guy  Mannering,  i.  371. 
Gylen  Castle,  ii.  410. 

"  Haar,"  i.  34. 
"  Hab  and  Jock  ba,"  i.  259. 
Habbies'  Howe,  i.  181. 
Haco,  King,  ii.  1. 
Haco,  Earl,  ii.  281. 
Haddinton,  i.  226. 
Haddington,  Countess  of,  i.  69. 
Haddington,  Earl  of,  ii.  38. 
Haddington,  Lord,  i.  92. 
Haig,  Mr.,  i.  72. 

Halidon  Hill,  battle  of,  i.  191,  293. 
Hamilton,  ii.  75. 

Hamilton,    Abbot   Patrick,  ii. 
166,  252. 

Hamilton,  Archbishop  John,  i. 

159 ;  ii.  76,  104,  134,  165. 
Hamilton,  Captain,  i.  333. 
Hamilton,  Duke  of,  i.  88. 
Hamilton,  Gavin,  i.  38 ;  ii.  25,  49, 

51. 

Hamilton,  James,   (first)  Duke 

of,  ii.  30. 
Hamilton,  James,  Earl  of  Arran, 

i.  225. 

Hamilton  of  Bothwellhaugh,  i. 
158. 

Hamilton  Palace,  ii.  75. 
Hamilton,  Sir  James,  i.  157. 
Hamilton,  Sir  James,  of  Cadzow, 

ii.  75. 

Hamilton,  Sir  James,  of  Fyn- 

nart,  ii.  71. 
Hamilton,  Thomas,  i.  144. 
Hammermen,  i.  18. 
Hand- Book  for  Scotland,  ii.  267. 
Hangingshaw  Tower,  i.  302. 
Hannay,  George,  i.  63. 
Hanover  Street,  Edinburgh,  i. 

137. 

Harden  Castle,  i.  277. 
"  Hardyknute,"  ballad,  ii.  2. 
"  Harlaw,"  ballad,  ii.  214. 
Harris  Island,  ii.  427. 
Hart,  And  ro,  i.  52,  191. 
Harvick,  i.  274. 
Hatton  House,  i.  176. 
Hawley,  General,  ii.  310. 


450 


INDEX. 


Hawthornden,  i.  191. 
Hay,  Father,  i.  182,  188. 
Hay,  Jane,  ii.  126. 
Hay,  John,  of  Restalrig,  ii.  246, 
315. 

Heart  of  Midlothian,  i.  128. 
Heart  of  Midlothian,  i.  373. 
Hebudes  of  Ptolemy,  ii.  421. 
Helmsdale,  ii.  262. 
Helmsdale  Water,  ii.  262. 
Henderson,  i.  62. 
Henderson  Row,  Edinburgh,  i. 
145. 

Henley,  W.  E.,  i.  135. 

Henry  I.,  i.  4. 

Henry  II.,  i.  7. 

Henry  IV.,  i.  356. 

Henry  IV.  of  France,  i.  346. 

Henry  VI.,  i.  212. 

Henry  VIII.,  i.  19,  244;  ii.  62. 

Henry  the  Minstrel,  ii.  4. 

Hepburn,  James,  Earl  Bothwell, 

i.  37,  40,  42,  100,  206,  212,  266, 

267. 

Hepburn,  Patrick,  Earl  of  Both- 
well,  i.  198,  205,  279;  ii.  72. 

Hepburn,  Prior,  ii.  172. 

Herbert,  Lady  Winnifred,  i.  327. 

Heriot,  George,  i.  53. 

Heriot  Row,  Edinburgh,  i.  142. 

Heriot's  Hospital,  Edinburgh,  i. 
55. 

Hermitage  Castle,  i.  267,  275, 278, 
279. 

Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,  i.  229. 
Herries  (fourth),  Lord,  i.  375. 
Herries,  Lord,  i.  254. 
Herries,  Lord  John,  i.  314. 
Herries,  Sir  John,  of  Terregles, 
i.  359. 

Hertford,  Earl  of,  i.  27,  184.  _ 
Hetherington,  Rev.  W.  M.,  ii.  41. 
Hewison,  J.  K.,  ii.  101. 
High  Kirk,  Church  of  St.  Giles, 

Edinburgh,  i.  46. 
High  Street,  Edinburgh,  i.  5,  56. 
Highland  Mary,  ii.  49. 
History  of  Fife  and  Kinross,  ii. 

164. 

History  of  Free  Masonry,  ii.  26. 
History  of  Moray  and  Nairn,  ii. 
236. 

History  of  Scotland,  i.  238 ;  ii.  99, 
279,  '346. 


History  of  the  Carnegies,  ii.  183. 

History  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, i.  318,  392 ;  ii.  41. 

History  of  the  Highlands,  ii.  414. 

History  of  the  Rebellion  of  1745- 
46,  ii.  22,  285,  317. 

History  of  the  Reformation,  ii. 

159,  167. 
Hoddam  Castle,  i.  314. 

Hogg,  James  ("  the  Ettrick  Shep- 
herd"), i.  113,  282,  283,  284, 
285,  286,  288,  291,  303. 

Hole,  William,  i.  148. 

Holiday  House,  i.  142. 

<(  Holy  Willie's  Prayer,"  ii.  49. 

Holyrood  Abbey,  Edinburgh,  i. 
6,  134. 

Holyrood  Chapel,  Edinburgh,  i. 

82,  83. 

Holyrood  House,  Edinburgh,  i. 

36,  58. 

Holyrood  Palace,  Edinburgh,  i. 
27. 

Holyrood,  sanctuary  of,  i.  132. 
Home,  Colonel,  i.  326. 
Home,  Countess  of,  i.  68. 
Home,  David,  Baron  of  Wedder- 

burn,  i.  231. 
Home,  Earl  of,  ii.  71. 
Home,  George,  Earl  of  Dunbar, 

i.  214. 

Home,  John,  i.  235,  236 ;  ii.  370. 
Home,  Lord,  i.  207. 
Homildon,  battle  of,  i.  356. 
Honorius  III.,  Pope,  ii.  104. 
"  Honors  of  Scotland,"  i.  118;  ii. 
190. 

Hope,  Adam,  i.  311. 

Hope,  Charles,  Earl  of  Hope- 

toun,  i.  164. 
Hope,  J.  R.,  i.  253,  254. 
Hope,  Sir  Thomas,  i.  127. 
Hopetoun,  Charles  Hope,  Earl 

of,  i.  164. 
Horm  Subsecivm,  i.  142. 
Horner,  Francis,  i.  110. 
Howard    Place,    Edinburgh,  i. 

142. 

"  Howlet,"  i.  299,  300. 

Hume,  David,  i.  105,  106,  137, 

160,  235. 

Hume,  Sir  Patrick,  (first)  Earl 

of  Marchmont,  i.  232. 
Hunter,  Abbot  Andrew,  i.  242. 


INDEX. 


451 


Huntingdon,  David,  Earl  of,  ii. 

178,  338. 

Huntingdon,  Henry,  Earl  of,i.337. 
Huntly  Castle,  ii.  124. 
Huntly,  Lord,  i.  168,  208,  221. 
Hurry,  General,  ii.  245,  274. 
Hyde,  Lady  Catherine,  i.  96. 
Hyder,  Ali,  Prince,  i.  107. 

Ilantullo  Castle,  ii.  365. 
"  Inchcape  Rock,"  ii.  182. 
Inchinahome,  ii.  365. 
Inchmurriu,  Loch  Lomond,  ii. 
119. 

Infirmary  Street,  Edinburgh,  i. 
135. 

"Indulgence  of  1699/'  ii.  35. 
"  In  Hospital,"  poem,  i.  135. 
Inner  Fame  Island,  i.  241. 
Innerleithen,  i.  295. 
Innes,  Bishop  John,  ii.  239. 
Innes-Ker,    Sir    James,  (fifth) 

Duke  of,  i.  263. 
Innocent  IV.,  Pope,  i.  4. 
lnvercauld  Castle,  ii.  207. 
Invergarry  Castle,  ii.  297. 
Inverlochy  Castle,  ii.  298. 
Inverness,  ii.  288. 
Inverness-shire,  ii.  285. 
Inverary  Castle,  ii.  393. 
Inverugie,  ii.  216. 
Inverurie,  ii.  212. 
Iona  Island,  ii.  432. 
Irish  Rebellion,  i.  66;  ii.  28. 
Irongray     Churchyard,  Kirk- 

brightshire,  i.  373. 
Irvine,  Alexander,  ii.  206. 
Irvinj?,  Edward,  i.  227,  309,  311; 

ii.  92. 

Irving,  Washington,  i.  252. 
Islay,  ii.  403. 
Isle  of  May,  ii.  175. 
Itinerary  of  Prince  Charles  Ed- 
ward, i.  59;  ii.  300,  313,  381. 
Ivanhoe,  ii.  19. 

James  I.,  i.  54,  57,  217,  299;  ii. 

24,  82,  340,  377. 
James  II.,  i.  10,  13,  164,  200,  261, 

291,  351,  358,  360,  361  ;  ii.  38, 

75.  83.  130,  247,  358,  382. 
James  III.,  i.  17,  161,  167,  205, 

230,  261,  363;  ii.  59,  130,  139, 

362. 


James  IV.,  i.  19,  155,  177,  198, 
265,  283,  293,  392,  393;  ii.  60, 
252. 

James  V.,  i.  23,  133,  156,  161, 189, 
215,  246,  281,  306,  308:  ii.  62, 
131,  382. 

James  VI.,  i.  38,  49,  218,  225, 
237,  265,  300,  301,  303,  323,  347, 
370;  ii.  131,  160,  185,  247,  379, 
382,  404. 

James  VII,,  i.  82,  184,  218,  247. 

James  VIII.,  i.  89,  100,  263 ;  ii. 
381. 

James  Court,  Edinburgh,  i.  105. 
Jameson,  George,  ii.  358. 
Jane,  Queen,  i.  11. 
Jed  River,  i.  271. 
Jedburgh,  i.  265,  267,  272. 
Jedburgh  Abbey,  i.  270. 
"  Jedhart  pears,"  i.  270. 
Jeffrey,  Lord  Francis,  i.  109,  110, 

111,  125,  140,  145,  174,  175,275. 
Jeffrey,  Mrs.  i.  91. 
"  Jingling  Geordie,"  i.  53. 
Joceline,  Bishop,  ii.  81. 
"  Jock  o'  the  Sclaits,"  i.  238. 
"  John  Barleycorn,"  ii.  47. 
John  Inglesant,  ii.  28. 
John  of  Gaunt,  i.  9. 
John  o'  Groat's  house,  ii.  274. 
"  Johnnie  Armstrong,"  ballad,  i. 

307. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  i.  21,  190;  ii. 

25,  185,  393,  430. 
Johnston,  Samuel,  of  Carnsal- 

loch,  i.  172. 
Johnston,    Sir    Alexander,  of 

Carnsalloch,  i.  171. 
Johnston,  Sir  Archibald,  i.  65, 75 ; 

ii.  27,  34. 
Johnstone,  James,  i.  310. 
Johnstone,  Lady,  of  Kirk  ton,  i. 

324. 

Johnstone,  Sir  Patrick,  i.  86. 
Johnstone,  William,  of  Kirkhill 
i.  324. 

Johnstone,    William,  of  Warn- 

phray,  i.  324. 
Jollv,  Bishop  Alexander,  ii.  219. 
Jones,  Paul,  i.  150,  367. 
Jonson,  Ben,  i.  190. 
Jura,  ii.  407. 
"  Justice-air,"  i.  266. 
I  Jute  industry,  ii.  179. 


452 


INDEX. 


Kairnes,  Lord,  i.  352. 

Keats,  John,  ii.  17. 

Keiss  Castle,  ii.  274. 

Keith,  Anne  Murray,  ii.  218. 

Keith,  George,  (fifth )  Earl  Mari- 

schal,  ii.  200. 
Keith  Hall,  ii.  213. 
Keith,  James  Francis  Edward, 

ii.  216. 
Keith  John,  ii.  191,  213. 
Kelp  industry,  ii.  422. 
Kelso,  i.  263. 
Kelso  Abbey,  i.  262. 
Kemble,  John,  i.  119,  319. 
Kemp,  George,  i.  143. 
Kenmure  Castle,  i.  378. 
Kenmure,  Lord,  i.  378. 
"  Kenmure's  drum,"  i.  378. 
Kennedy,  Bishop  James,  i.  13; 

ii.  165,  172. 
Kennedy  Castle,  i.  394. 
Kennedy,  Quintin,  ii.  19. 
Kennedy,  Susanna,  ii.  25. 
Kenneth  II.,  i.  241. 
Kenueth  III.,  i.  280. 
Kerrera,  island  of,  ii.  410. 
Kerr,  Lord  Mark,  i.  224. 
Kerr,  Mark,  i.  196. 
Kerr,  Sir  Andrew,  of  Cessford,  i. 

196. 

Ker,  Thomas,  i.  271. 
Kers  of  Cessford,  i.  247. 
Kidnapped,  ii.  126,  334. 
Kilbirnie,  church  of,  ii.  26. 
Kilchurn  Castle,  ii.  358,  409. 
Kilcoy  Castle,  ii.  251. 
Kilcummin,  ii.  297. 
Kildrummy  Castle,  ii.  210. 
Killeser  Castle,  i.  397. 
Killiecrankie,  battle  of,  ii.  347. 
Killiecrankie  Pass,  ii.  345. 
Kilmarnock,  Earl  of,  ii.  336. 
Kilpont,  Earl,  ii.  369. 
Kilravock  Castle,  ii.  248. 
Kilsyth  Castle,  ii.  140. 
Kilwinning,  priory  of,  ii.  25. 
"  King  of  the  Border,"  i.  283. 
"  King  of  Thieves,"  i.  283. 
King's  College,  Aberdeen,  ii.  204. 
"King's  Confession,"  i.  65;  ii. 
27. 

Kinloss,  ii.  242. 
Kinloss  Abbey,  ii.  241. 
Kinmont  Willie,  i.  276,  282. 


"  Kinmont  Willie,"  ballad,  i.  307. 
Kinross,  ii.  148. 
Kintore,  Earl  of,  ii.  213. 
Kintyre,  ii.  398. 
Kirk,  Thomas,  i.  186. 
Kircaldy,  Sir  William,  i.  45. 
Kirkcudbright,  Lord  Robert,  i. 
365. 

Kirkmadrine  Church,  i.  397. 
Kirk  o'  Field  House,  Edinburgh, 

i.  40. 

Kirkpatrick,  Sir  Roger,  i.  322, 

336,  342. 
Kirkwall,  ii.  279. 
"Knight  of  Elderslie,"  ii.  111. 
Knights  of  St.  John,  i.  162. 
Knights  Templar,  i.  204. 
Knoidart,  ii.  286. 
Knox,  Andrew,  ii.  404. 
Knox,  John,  i.  26,  28,  29,  30,  32, 

35,  44,  46,  60,  62,  157,  227,  228 ; 

ii.  19,  27,  107,  132,  159, 167, 169, 
170,  175,  376. 

Kyles  of  Bute,  ii.  395. 

Lachlan  Castle,  ii.  394. 

Lady  Glenorchy's  Free  Church, 

Edinburgh,  i.  80. 
"  Lady  of  the  Green  Mantle,"  i. 

129. 

Lady  Stair's  Close,  Edinburgh, 
i.  105. 

Laidlaw,  William,  i.  284,  291. 

Lake  of  Mentieth,  ii.  365. 

Lambert,  General  John,  ii.  191. 

Lamberton,  Bishop,  ii.  13,  55. 

Lamington,  Lord,  ii.  69. 

Lammermoor  Hills,  i.  229. 

Lammie,  Andrew,  ii.  223. 

Lanark,  ii.  54. 

Lanarkshire,  ii.  54. 

Lands  and  Their  Owners  in  Gal- 
loway, i.  389. 

Lang,  Andrew,  i.  304 ;  ii.  337. 

Langholm  Castle,  i.  306. 

Langside,  battle  of,  i.  166 ;  ii. 
108. 

"  Lantern  of  the  North,"  ii.  237. 
Largs,  ii.  3. 
Largs,  battle  of,  ii.  1. 
Lass  wade,  i.  194. 
Latoun,  Lord,  i.  244. 
Laud,   Archbishop   William,  i. 
61 ;  ii.  27. 


INDEX. 


453 


Lauder   Aisle,  Church   of  St. 

Giles,  Edinburgh,  i.  14. 
Lauder,  Alexander,  i.  14. 
Lauder,  Bishop,  ii.  82,  351. 
Lauder,  bridge  of,  i.  18. 
Lauderdale,  Charles  Maitland, 

Earl  of,  i.  176. 
Lauderdale,     John  Maitland, 

Duke  of,  ii.  33. 
Lauders  of  the  Bass,  i.  217. 
Lawn-Market,  Edinburgh,  i.  5. 
Lawrie,  Dr.  ii.  51. 
Lawson,  John,  i.  47,  49. 
Lays  of  the  Scottish  Cavaliers,  ii. 

41. 

Le  Brus,  Robert,  i.  336. 
"  Lee  Penny,"  ii.  70. 
Lees,  Rev.  J.  Cameron,  i.  123 ;  ii. 
10ri. 

Leighton,  Bishop  Robert,  ii.  372. 
Leith,  Edinburgh,  i.  150. 
Leith  Walk,  Edinburgh,  i.  72. 
Leithen  Water,  i.  295. 
Lennox,  Earl  of,  i.  35,  41,  44, 156, 

205;  ii.  113. 
Lennox's  Cairn,  i.  157. 
Lend  Castle,  ii.  251. 
Leslie  Castle,  ii.  211. 
Leslie,  General  Alexander,  i.  71  ; 

ii.  29. 

Leslie,  General  David,  i.  213,  294  ; 

ii.  29. 
Leslie,  John,  ii.  167. 
Leslie,  Norman,  ii.  167. 
Leuchars,  ii.  162. 
"  Lewie  Gordon,"  ii.  200. 
Lewis  Island,  ii.  427. 
Liber  Plascardensis,  ii.  241. 
Lickleyhead  Castle,  ii.  211. 
Liddesdale,  i.  278. 
Liddesdale,  Knight  of,  i.  27? . 
Life  of  Chalmers,  ii.  92. 
Life  of  Edward  Irving,  i.  312. 
Life  of  Hannibal,  ii.  44. 
Life  of  Margaret  Tudor,  i.  198. 
Lincluden  Abbey,  i.  335. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  i.  146. 
Lindores,  abbey  of,  ii.  161. 
Lindsay,  Anne,  ii.  176. 
Lindsay,  David,  i.  63. 
Lindsay,  Lady  Sophia,  ii.  392. 
Lindsay,  Lord,  i.  36,  44. 
Lindsay,  Robert,  of  Pittscottie,  i. 
155. 


Lindsay,  Sir  David,  ii.  162. 
Lindsay,  Sir  James,  i.  322. 
Lindsay,  Sir  John,  i.  342. 
Linlithen,  ii.  153. 
Linlithgow,  battle  of,  i.  156. 
Linlithgow  Palace,  ii.  159. 
Linlithgow  Parish,  i.  162. 
Linnel,  John,  i.  127. 
Linton,  Lord,  i.  294,  295. 
Lismore,  island  of,  ii.  413. 
Little  Cum  brae,  ii.  397. 
"  Little  Jock  Elliot,"  i.  267. 
Little  Picardy,  i.  83. 
Livingstone,  David,  ii.  431. 
Livingstone,  Lieutenant-General, 
i.  351 

Livingstone,  Sir  Alexander,  i.  11. 
Livingstone,  Sir  William,  i.  205. 
Locard,  Simon,  of  Lee,  ii.  70. 
Loch  Arkaig,  ii.  286. 
Loch  Awe,  ii.  408. 
Loch  Doon  Castle,  ii.  20. 
Loch  Earn,  ii.  361. 
Loch  Eil,  ii.  286. 
Loch  Fyne,  ii.  394. 
Loch  Goil,  ii.  394. 
Loch,  James,  ii.  264. 
Loch  Katrine,  ii.  356. 
Loch  Laggan,  ii.  356. 
Loch  Linnhe,  ii.  286. 
Loch  Lochy,  ii.  286. 
Loch  Lomond,  ii.  118,  356. 
Loch  Ness,  ii.  286. 
Loch  Ranza  Castle,  ii.  398. 
Loch  Tay,  ii.  356. 
Lochaber,  ii.  286. 
Lochgoin,  ii.  39. 
Lochinch  Castle,  i.  394. 
Lochlea  Farm,  ii.  46. 
Lochleven,  ii.  142. 
Lochleven  Castle,  i.  226  ;  ii.  143. 
Lochmaben  Castle,  i.  336,  342, 
343. 

Lockerbie  Tower,  i.  325. 
Lockhart,  Count,  ii.  70. 
Lock  hart,  John  Gibson,  i.  109, 

113,  114,  175,  253,  255,  258,  273, 

284 ;  ii.  49. 
Lockhart  Papers,  ii.  316,  335. 
Lockhart,  Walter,  i.  253. 
Lockwood  Castle,  i.  323. 
Logan,  Elizabeth,  i.  191. 
Logan,  Robert,  Laird  of  Restal- 

rig,  i.  220,  229. 


454 


INDEX. 


"  Lollards  of  Kyle,"  ii.  27. 
London  Magazine,  i.  202. 
London  Street,  Edinburgh,  i.  148. 
"  Lord  Maxwell's  Goodnight,"  i. 
325. 

"  Lord  Ullin's  Daughter,"  ballad, 
ii.  431. 

"  Lords  Associators,"  i.  226. 
Lorn,  Lord,  i.  68  ;  ii.  118. 
Lorn,  Lord  of,  ii.  118. 
Lothian,  Marquis  of,  i.  197,  270. 
Lothians,  the,  i.  153. 
Loudon  Hill,  battle  of.  ii.  16. 
Loudon,  John  Campbell,  Lord  of, 

ii.  28,  311. 
Lovaine,  Lord,  i.  390. 
Lovat,   Simon   Fraser,  Lord,  i. 

203 ;  ii.  293,  336,  355. 
Low,  John,  of  Lorn,  i.  382,  384. 
Luckenbooths,  Edinburgh,  i.  94. 
"  Lucy  of  Lammermoor,"  i.  389. 
"  Lucy's  Flittin,"  i.  284,  291. 
Lynta'lee,  i.  272. 
Lywarch-Hen,  i.  320. 
Lywarch-Ogg,  i.  320. 

MacAlpin,  King  Kenneth,  ii.  349, 

385. 

Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington,  ii. 

88,  346,  388. 
Macbeth's  Cairn,  ii.  206. 
Macdonald,  Alaster,  ii.  403. 
Macdonald,  Alexander,  of  Bois- 

dale,  ii.  301,  416. 
Macdonald,  Flora,  ii.  323. 
Macdonald,   Sir  Alexander,  of 

Sleat,  ii.  301. 
Macdonald  (Colkitto),  Alastair, 

ii.  245. 

Macdougal  of  Lorn,  ii.  362. 
Macgibbon  and  Ross,  i.  22 ;  ii. 

203,  238. 
Macgregors,  clan  of,  ii.  121. 
Maclan,  of  Glencoe,  ii.  416. 
Mackay,  ^Eneas,  ii.  164. 
Mackay,  General,  ii.  345. 
Mackenzie,  Alexander,  i.  221 ;  ii. 

251,  268. 
Mackenzie,  Henry,  ii.  412. 
Mackenzie,  Kenneth,  of  Kintail, 

ii.  255. 

Mackenzie,  Sir  Rory,  ii.  251. 
Mackintosh,  i.  89. 
Maclean,  Lauchlan,  ii,  411. 


Maclellan,  Sir  Patrick,  i.  359. 
Maclellan,  Sir  Thomas,  of  Bom- 

bie,  i.  364. 
Macleod,  Donald,  ii.  268,  320. 
Macleod  of  Assynt,  i.  68. 
Macneill,  Hector,  i.  190. 
Macpherson,  Cluny,  ii.  337. 
Macpherson,  Ewan,  of  Cluny,  ii. 

308. 

Macpherson,  James,  ii,  230. 
"  Macpherson's  Rout"  ballad,  ii. 
231. 

Madeleine,  wife  of  James  V.,  i. 
26. 

Magus  Moor,  ii.  163. 

Maid  of  Norway,  i.  7,  338. 

"  Maiden,"  the,  i.  46,  64. 

"  Mai-dun,"  i.  2. 

"  Mailie's  Elegy,"  ii.  47. 

Mailros,  monastery  of,  i.  240. 

Maitland,  Charles,  Earl  of  Lau- 
derdale, i,  176. 

Maitland,  John,  Duke  of  Lau- 
derdale, ii.  33. 

Malcolm  I.,  i.  305. 

Malcolm  II.,  i.  3. 

Malcolm  IV.,  i.  253,  338;  ii.  382. 

Mar  Castle,  ii.  208. 

Mar,  Earl  of,  i.  17,  89,  167. 

Mar,  John  Erskine,  Earl  of,  i. 
237. 

Mar,  John,  (second)  Earl  of,  i. 
237. 

March,  Earl  of,  i.  297. 

March,  Patrick,  (second)  Earl  of, 

i.  209,  210. 
Marchmont,  Earl  of,  i.  88. 
March mont,  Patrick  Hume,(first) 

Earl  of,  i.  232. 
Margaret  of  Denmark,  i.  18, 155 ; 

ii.  139. 

Margaret,  Saint,  wife  of  Mal- 
colm III.,  i.  3;  ii.  15. 

Margaret  Tudor,  wife  of  James 
IV.,  i.  20,  155,  198,  393. 

Maria  Theresa,  Empress,  ii.  70. 

Marie  de  Bourbon,  i.  26. 

Marischal  College,  ii.  200. 

Marischal,  George,  (tenth)  Earl, 
ii.  217. 

Marjorie  Fleming,  i.  142. 

Marmalade,  ii.  179. 

Marmion,  i.  109,  155,  177,  219, 
250;  ii.  61. 


INDEX. 


455 


Marrnion,  Lord,  i.  20. 
Mar's  Work,  Stirling,  ii.  134. 
Marshall,  Alfred,  i.  266. 
Marshall,   Billy,  the  gipsy,  i. 

366. 

"  Mary  of  Castle  Cary,"  i.  190. 
Mary  of  Gueldres,  i.  12,  15,  155, 
261. 

Mary  of  Guise,  i.  150,  157,  205, 

215;  ii.  76,  131. 
Mary  of  Lorraine,  i.  26. 
Mary  of  Modena,  i.  80. 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots  (see  Stuart, 

Mary). 
Mary  burgh,  ii.  304. 
if  Mary's  Dream,"  poem,  i.  379. 
Masson,  Professor  David,  i.  94, 

115,  193. 
Mathieson,  John,  i.  77. 
Matilda,  Princess,  i.  4. 
Mauchline  Castle,  ii.  51. 
Maxwell,  Hon.  Joseph,  i.  254. 
Maxwell,  Lady  Jean,  ii.  200. 
Maxwell,  Lady  Grizel,  i.  365. 
Maxwell,  John,  of  Terraughty,  i. 

364. 

Maxwell,  Lord,  of  Herries,  i. 
372. 

Maxwell,  Robert,  the  philoso- 
pher, i.  325. 

Maxwell,  Sir  Herbert,  i.  319,  368, 
393. 

Maxwell,  Sir  John,  ii.  109. 
Maxwell,  William,  of  Nithsdale 

and  Everingham,  i.  327. 
Maybole  Castle,  ii.  20. 
Mavbole  Collegiate  Church,  ii. 

18. 

McCrie.C.  G,  i.  139. 
McCrie,  Thomas,  i.  113. 
McCubbin,  Alexander,  i.  376. 
McCulloch,  Walter,  i.  381. 
McLauchlane,  Margaret,  i.  387. 
McQueen,  i.  93. 
Mc Vicar,  Rev.  Neil,  i.  102. 
Meadow   Walk,   Edinburgh,  i. 
135. 

Mean,  John,  i.  63. 
Meikle  Cumbrae,  ii.  397. 
"  Meikle-mouthed  Meg,"  i.  292, 
303. 

Meldrum  of  Redhill,  ii.  227. 
Melrose  Abbey,  i.  241,  242. 
Melvill,  Sir  James,  i.  38. 


Melville,  Andrew,  ii.  185. 
Melvin,  James,  ii.  168. 
Memorials  of  Edinburgh,  i.  10. 
Menteith,  ii.  367. 
Menteith,  J.  S.  i.  336. 
Menteith,  Sir  John,  ii.  8,  113. 

118,  367. 
Menzies  Castle,  ii.  356. 
Menzies,  Sir  Robert,  ii.  356. 
Mercat  Cross  of  Edinburgh,  i.  130. 
Merchiston  Castle,  i.  169. 
Merchiston,  John  Napier,  Baron 

of,  i.  169. 
Methven,  ii,  373. 
Middleton,  Lord,  ii.  33. 
Mill  Street,  Dumfries,  i.  334. 
Miller,  Hugh,  ii.  264. 
Mingarry  Castle,  ii.  413. 
Millport,  ii.  397. 
Mohr,  James,  ii.  125. 
Moidart,  ii.  286. 

Monboddo,  Lord,  the  Ordinary,  i. 
221. 

Monggombyrry,  Sir  Hewe,  ii.  3. 
Monk,  General  George,  Duke  of 

Albemarle,  i.  55,  199,  220. 
Monmouth,  Anne,  Duchess  of,  i. 

201. 

Monmouth,  James,  Duke  of,  i. 
200 ;  ii.  74. 

"  Mons  Meg,"  i.  82,  118,  362. 

Montague,  William,  Earl  of  Sal- 
isbury, i.  210. 

Montgomery,  James,  i.  299. 

Montgomery,  Sir  Robert,  ii.  3. 

Montrose,  ii.  184. 

Montrose,  James  Graham,  Mar- 
quis of,  i.  65, 67, 171,  293,  294  ;  ii. 
29,  186,  196,  245,  258,  298,  345, 
373. 

Monymusk,  church  of,  ii.  209. 
Morar,  ii.  286. 
Moray,  ii.  234. 

Moray  Aisle,  Church  of  St.  Giles, 

Edinburgh,  i.  10. 
Moray,  Countess  of,  i.  68. 
Moray  House,  i.  68. 
Moray,  James  Stuart,  Earl  of,  i. 

44,  48,  157,  158,  268,  310,  378; 

ii.  108, 195. 
Moray,  Sir  Andrew,  i.  278. 
Moray,  Sir  Robert,  i.  38. 
Moray,  Thomas  Randolph,  Earl 

of,  i.  342. 


456 


INDEX. 


Mordington,  Lord,  ii.  66. 
Morham,  i.  227. 
Mornington,  Lord,  i.  202. 
Morton  Castle,  i.  345. 
Morton,  James  Douglas,  Earl  of, 

i.  36,  45,  48,  177,  198,  207,  242. 
Moryson,  Fynes,  i.  56. 
Mossgiel  Farm,  ii.  48. 

Mount  Oliphant  Farm,  ii.  46. 
Mowbray,  Sir  John,  ii.  214. 
Moy  Hall,  ii.  311. 
"  Muckle  Meg,"  i.  74,  82. 
Muness  Castle,  ii.  284. 
Munro  of  Culcairn,  ii.  355. 
Munro,  Sir  Robert,  of  Foulis,  ii. 
138. 

Murchison,  Donald,  ii.  256. 
Murdoch,  John,  ii.  44. 
Mure,  Elizabeth,  ii.  23. 
Murray,  John,  (eighth)  Laird  of 

Philiphaugh,  i.  293. 
Murray,  John,  of  Broughton,  ii. 

304. 

Murray,  John,  of  Lanrick,  ii. 
121. 

Murray,  Lord  George,  i.  96,  103; 

ii.  309,  313,  336,  342,  348. 
Murray,  Lord  John,  ii.  343. 
Murray,  Lord  Patrick,  i.  303. 
Murray,  Mrs.  John,  i.  100. 
Murray,  Sir  Andrew,  ii.  71. 
Murray,  Sir  Gideon,  i.  303. 
Murray,  Sir  John,  i.  293. 
Murrav,  Sir  William,  of  Elibank, 

i.  292. 

Museum  of   Science  and  Art, 

Edinburgh,  i.  134. 
My  Aunt  Margaret's  Mirror ,  i. 

105. 

My  liar,  Andrew,  i.  14. 
Mylne,  Robert,  i.  80. 

Nairn,  ii.  246. 
Nantes,  Edict  of,  i.  83. 
Napier,  Archibald,  (second)  Lord, 
i.  170. 

Napier,  Elizabeth  Erskine,  Lady, 
i.  171. 

Napier,  John,  Baron  of  Merchis- 

toii,  i.  169,  229. 
Napier,  Macvey,  i.  112. 
Nasmyth,  Alexander,  i.  128,  142, 

181. 

Nasmyth,  i.  190. 


Nasmyth,  James,  i.  127,  181. 
"  National  Covenant,"  i.  65 ;  ii. 
27. 

National  Monument,  Edinburgh, 
i.  144. 

National  Portrait  Gallery  and 
National  Museum  of  Anti- 
quaries, Edinburgh,  i.  148. 

Naw,  Claude,  i.  268. 

Neidpath  Castle,  i.  297. 

Neish,  ii.  361. 

Nelson,  Lord  Horatio,  i.  141, 144. 
Nelson,  William,  i.  117. 
Netherbow  Port,  Edinburgh,  i. 

132. 

Nevill's  Cross,  battle  of,  i.  6. 
New  Abbey,  i.  371. 
New  Town,  Edinburgh,  i.  136. 
Newark,  i.  301. 
Newark  Castle,  ii.  111. 
Newbattle  Abbey,  i.  196. 
Newbattle  Park,  i.  197. 
Newbery,  Mr.  Francis,  ii.  95. 
Newbottle  Abbey,  i.  196. 
Newburgh,  ii.  161. 
Newe  Castle,  ii.  211. 
Newhaven,  Edinburgh,  i.  149. 
Newton,  Lord,  i.  126. 
Nicholas  V.,  Pope,  ii.  83. 
Niddrie  Castle,  i.  166. 
Niddry  Street,  Edinburgh,  i.  23. 
Ninestane  Rig,  i.  278. 
"  Nithsdale  cloak,"  i.  330. 
Nithsdale,  Countess  of,  i.  327. 
Noltland  Castle,  ii.  281. 
North  Berwick,  i.  219. 
North  Berwick  Law,  i.  141,  219. 
North  Castle  Street,  Edinburgh, 
i.  142. 

North  Uist  Island,  ii.  427. 
Northampton,  peace  of,  i.  278. 
Nottingham,  Lord,  ii.  359. 
Nova  Scotia,  i.  70. 

Oakwood  Tower,  i.  291. 
Oban,  ii.  411. 
Ochiltree,  Lord,  ii.  404. 
Oifir,  Robin,  ii.  125. 
Old  Infirmary,  Edinburgh,  i.  135. 
"Old  Maitland,"  i.  285. 
"Old  Mortality,"  i.  378. 
Old  Mortality,  i.  371 ;  ii.  37,  71. 
"Old  Q."  (Marquis  of  Queens- 
bury),  i.  97,  293,  297. 


INDEX. 


457 


Old  Tolbooth,  Edinburgh,  i.  25, 
127. 

Oliphant,  Mrs.  Margaret,  i.  11, 

227,  312;  ii.  92. 
Oliphant,  Sir  William,  ii.  129. 
Omar,  Kayyara,  i.  194. 
O'Neil,  Captain,  ii.  323. 
Orange,  Prince  of,  i.  83. 
Oronsay,  ii.  408. 
Order  of  the  Thistle,  i.  82. 
Oriel  College,  Oxford,  ii.  136. 
Orkneys,  the,  ii.  275. 
Orphir,  ii.  280. 
Otterburn,  battle  of,  i.  354. 
"  Our  Lady's  Port  of  Grace,"  i. 

149. 

Our  Lady's  Steps,  Edinburgh,  i. 
86. 

Paine,  Thomas,  i.  311. 
"Painted     Chamber,"  Pinkie 

House,  Musselburgh,  i.  224. 
Paisley,  ii.  98. 
Paisley,  Joseph,  i.  309. 
Paisley,  priory  of,  ii.  104. 
Palace  of  the  Bishops  of  Dunkeld, 

i.  176. 
Paps  of  Jura,  ii.  407. 
Parliament  House,  Edinburgh,  i. 

124. 

Parliament  Square,  Edinburgh, 

i.  124. 
Paterson,  John,  i.  81. 
Paterson,  Robert,  i.  378. 
Paterson,  William,  i.  84. 
Paton,  James,  ii.  84. 
Patrick,  Admiral  Earl,  i.  206. 
Peace  of  Northampton,  i.  278. 
Peebles,  i.  297. 

Peebles  Castle,  i.  296. 

"  Peebles  to  the  Play,"  i.  299. 

Peeblesshire,  i.  294. 

"  Peggy  Paine,"  i.  311. 

Pembroke,  Earl  of,  i.  384,  386 ; 

ii.  16,  373. 
Pennant,  Thomas,  i.  154. 
Pentland  Hills,  i.  179. 

Percy,  Henry,  "Hotspur,"  i.  356. 

Perk  Hill,  ii.  206. 

Perth,  ii.  339,  375. 

Perth,  Duke  of,  i.  99;  ii.  336. 

Perth,  Earl  of,  i.  83. 

"  Pessybill  Kin}?,"  ii.  155. 

Peterhead,  ii.  215. 


Peter's  Letters  to  His  Kinsfolk,  i. 
175. 

Peveril  of  the  Peak,  ii.  343. 

Philiphaugh,  i.  293. 

Phillips,  Margaret,  of  Annan- 
dale,  i.  286. 

Philorth  Water,  ii.  218. 

"  Physic  Garden,"  i.  51. 

Picardy  Place,"  i.  83. 

Pickle  the  Spy,  ii.  337. 

Pictish  Chronicles,  ii.  339. 

Picturesque  Notes,  i.  180. 

Pinkie  House,  Musselburgh,  i. 
224,  225. 

Pinkie-Cleuch,  battle  of,  i.  225. 

Pirate,  ii.  176. 

Pitcairn,  Dr.,  i.  81. 

Pitlochrie,  ii.  349. 

Pitscottie,  i.  167. 

Pitsligo,  Lord,  ii.  228. 

Pius  IX.,  Pope,  i.  197. 

Pluscarden  Priory,  ii.  240. 

Poems,  i.  191. 

Pollok,  Mrs.  Ferguson,  ii.  111. 
Polwarth,  i.  231. 
Polwarth  Church,  i.  232. 
Polwarth,  Earl,  i.  249. 
Polwarth,  Lord,  i.  277. 
"  Poosie  Nansy,"  ii.  52. 
Porteus,  Captain,  i.  91. 
Portobello,  Edinburgh,  i.  151. 
Portpatrick,  i.  398. 
Preston    Aisle,  Church    of  St. 

Giles,  Edinburgh,  i.  10,  14, 167. 
Preston,  battle  of,  i.  89 ;  ii.  30. 
Preston,  Sir  Simon,  i.  167. 
Preston,  Sir  William,  i.  167. 
Preston,  William,  i.  14. 
Prestonpans,  battle  of,  i.  101,  222. 
Primrose,  Alison,  i.  54. 
Primrose,  James,  i.  55. 
Primrose,  Sir  Archibald,  i.  165. 
Primrose,  Viscount,  i.  105. 
Princes    Street,    Edinburgh,  i. 

136,  137,  140. 
Psalms  of  David,  i.  52. 

Quarterly  Review,  i.  112. 
"  Queen  Bleary's  Tomb,"  Paisley, 
ii.  105. 

"Queen  Margaret's  Bower,"  i. 
161. 

"  Queen  Mary's  Child-garden," 
ii.  366. 


458 


INDEX. 


Queen  Street,  Edinburgh,  i.  137, 
148. 

Queen  Street,  Jedburgh,  i.  269. 
Queen's  Wake,  i.  283,  285. 
Queeusbury,  Duke  of,  i.  86. 
Queensbury,  Marquis  of,  i.  97, 
293,  297. 

R.    L,    Stevenson's  Edinburgh 

Days,  i.  180. 
Rab  and  His  Friends,  i.  135,  142. 
"  Race  of  Dunbar,"  i.  72. 
Raeburn,  Sir  Henry,  i.  142. 
Rambles  in  Galloway,  i.  367. 
Rampini,  Charles,  ii.  236. 
Ramsay,  Allan,  i.  93,  180,  231; 

ii.  25. 

Ramsay  Lane,  Edinburgh,  i.  149. 
Ramsay,  Sir  Alexander,  of  Dal- 

housie,  i.  190,  203,  211,  261,  275, 

279. 

Rimsay,  Sir  Andrew,  i.  218. 

Ramsay,  Sir  John,  i.  205. 

Randolph,  Sir  Thomas,  i.  7. 

Randolph,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mo- 
ray, i.  210,  342. 

Ranfurly  Castle,  ii.  107. 

Rankleburn,  vale  of,  i.  280. 

Ravenscraig  Castle,  ii.  156. 

Reade,  Charles,  i.  150. 

Reay,  ii.  272. 

Reay  Country,  ii.  270. 

Red  Castle,  ii.  251. 

Red  Comyn,  i.  322,  332,  336,  341. 

"  Red  Douglases,"  ii.  59. 

Red  Head,  ii.  183. 

Redbraes  Castle,  i.  232. 

Reid,  Abbot  Robert,  ii.  241. 

Reid,  Bishop,  ii.  277. 

Renwick,  James,  i.  351. 

Repp,  Thorleif,  i.  319. 

Reseby,  John,  ii.  166. 

Restalrig,  Robert  Logan,  Laird 
of,  i.  220,  229. 

Review  of  the  Culloden  Papers, 
ii.  290. 

Rhinns  of  Galloway,  i.  395. 
Rhydderch,  King  of  Northum- 

bria,  i.  314  ;  ii.  80. 
Riecio,  David,  i.  36 ;  ii.  379. 
"  Riding  of  the  Parliament,"  i. 

85. 

"  Riding  the  Marches,"  i.  275. 
Rich,  Lady  Mary,  ii.  359. 


Richard  Cceur  de  Lion,  i.  185. 
Richardson,  Mrs.,  i.  287,  288. 
Richmond,  Johnnie,  ii.  52. 
Rob  Roy,  ii.  122,  123,  124. 
Rob  Roy,  ii.  84,  121,  363. 
"  Rob  Roy's  Lament,"  ii.  122. 
Robert  I.,  i.  241. 
Robert  II.,  i.  9;  ii.  23,  24,  197. 
Robert  III.,  ii.  106,  378,  395. 
Robert,  Duke  of  Normandy,  i. 
182. 

Robertson,  i.  90,  93. 
Rodil,  ii.  428. 
Rogers,  William,  i.  295. 
Rollock,  Robert,  i.  50. 
Rood  Day,  i.  6. 

Rose  Street,  Edinburgh,  i.  137. 
Rosebank  House,  i.  190. 
Rosebery,  Earl  of,  i.  55,  165. 
Rosebery,  Lord,  i.  105. 
Rosemarkie,  ii.  250. 
Roseneath  Castle,  ii.  117. 
Ross  and  Cromarty,  county,  ii. 
249. 

Ross,  Earl  of,  i.  360. 
Ross,  Euphemia,  ii.  24. 
Ross,  Ferquhard,  Earl  of,  ii.  254. 
Rossend  Castle,  ii.  155. 
Rosslyn,  battle  of,  i.  189. 
Rosslvn  Castle,  i,  181. 
Rosslvn,  Chapel,  i.  182,  185. 
Rosslyn,  (third)  Earl  of,  i.  187. 
Rosslyn,  James  Francis  Harvey 

St.  Clair  Erskine,  Earl  of,  i. 

189. 
Rothes,  i.  65. 
Rothes  Castle,  ii.  240. 
Rothesay,  ii.  395. 
Rothesay  Castle,  ii.  395. 
Rothesay,  David,  Duke  of,  i.  10, 

212,  356  ;  ii.  106,  157. 
Rowallan  Castle,  ii.  23. 
Roxburgh,  i.  240,  259. 
Roxburgh  Castle,  i.  203,  260,  261. 
Roxburgh,   William,  (fourth) 

Duke  of,  i.  263. 
Royal  Astronomical  Observatory 

of  Scotland,  i.  177. 
Roval  Infirmary,  Edinburgh,  i. 

135. 

Royal  proclamations,  ceremony  of 

making,  i.  131. 
Rullion  Green,  battle  of,  i,  76  ;  ii. 

I  35. 


INDEX. 


459 


Rum,  island,  ii.  429. 
Russell,  Dr.,  i.  287. 
Russell,  Lord  William,  ii.  38. 
Rutherford,  Dr.  Daniel,  i.  248. 
Rutherford  family,  i.  259. 
Rutherford,  Samuel,  i.  379. 
"  Rutherford's  Walk,"  i.  379. 
Ruthven,  Alexander,  ii.  380. 
Ruthven,  Lord,  i.  36,  44,  219. 
Ruthven,  William,  Earl  of  Gow- 

rie,  ii.  379. 
Rut  h  well,  i.  318. 

Rutland  Street,  Edinburgh,  i. 
142. 

Rye  House  Plot,  ii.  38. 
Ryefield  Lodge,  ii.  251. 

Sailors  and  Soldiers  Home,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  148. 

St.  Abb's  Head,  i.  230. 

St.  Andrew,  ii.  164. 

St.  Andrew  Square,  Edinburgh, 
i.  137. 

St.  Andrew  Street,  Edinburgh,  i. 
137. 

St.  Andrew's  Church,  Edinburgh, 
i.  138. 

St.  Andrew's  Church,  Peebles,  i. 

279. 

St.  Andrews  University,  ii.  172. 
St.  Anthony's  Well,  Edinburgh, 
i.  99. 

St.  Baidred,  i.  217. 
St.  Blane,  ii.  396. 
St.  Boniface,  ii.  381. 
St.  Boswells,  i.  259. 
St.  Bride  Church,  Douglas,  ii.  55, 
68. 

St.  Clair,  Bishop,  ii.  351. 
St.  Clair,  Edward,  of  Draidon,  i. 
183. 

St.  Clair,  Oliver,  i.  215,  308 ;  ii. 
276. 

St.  Clair,  Sir  John,  i.  184 ;  ii.  274. 

St.  Clair,  Sir  William,  i.  182. 

St.  Clair,  Sir  William,  (third) 
Earl  of  Orknev,  i.  185. 

St.  Clair,  Sir  William,  of  Pent- 
land,  i.  184. 

St.  Columba,  ii.  288,  411,  433. 

St.  Cuthbert,  i.  241,  365. 

St.  Cuthbert,  church  of,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  5. 

St.  Cuthbert,  chapel  of,  i.  241. 


St.  David  Street,  Edinburgh,  i. 
137. 

St.  Donnan,  ii.  429. 
St.  Duthus,  ii.  252. 
St.  Elois,  chapel  of,  Church  of 

St.  Giles,  Edinburgh,  i.  10. 
St.  Fillans,  ii.  362. 
St.  Giles,  arm-bone  of,  i.  14,  31. 
St.  Giles,  church  of,  Edinburgh 

i.  5,  9,  14,  30,  62,  63,  64,  123. 
St.  Giles  Street,  i.  136. 
St.  Ives,  i.  180. 

St.  John  Baptist,  church  of, 
Perth,  ii.  376. 

St.  John  the  Evangelist,,  chapel 
of,  Church  of  St.  Giles,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  14. 

St.  John's  Town  of  Dairy,  church 
of,  i.  377. 

St.  Kentigern,  i.  314  ;  ii.  79. 

St.  Kilda,  ii.  424. 

St.  Leonard's  College,  ii.  172. 

St.  Magnus,  ii.  411. 

St.  Magnus,  cathedral  of,  Ork- 
ney, ii.  277. 

St.  Machar's  Church,  Old  Aber- 
deen, ii.  203. 

St.  Magdalen,  chapel  of,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  32. 

St.  Margaret,  chapel  of,  Edin- 
burgh Castle,  i.  117. 

St.  Margaret,  Queen  of  Malcolm 
Caennmor,  i.  3,  166,  230;  ii. 
150. 

St.  Mary,  church  of,  Hawick,  i. 
274. 

St.  Mary's  College,  ii.  172. 

St.  Mary's  Episcopal  Cathedral, 
Edinburgh,  i.  147. 

St.  Mary's  Isle,  i.  366. 

St.  Mary's  Loch,  i.  287. 

St.  Michael's  Church,  Linlith- 
gow, i.  161. 

St.  Monan's,  ii.  175. 

St.  Mungo,  ii.  85. 

St.  Nicholas,  church  of,  Dal- 
keith, i.  201. 

St.  Nicholas,  collegiate  church 
of,  Biggar,  ii.  69. 

St.  Ninan,  i.  391,  392. 

St.  Olive,  ii.  411. 

St.  Oran,  ii.  408. 

St.  Peter,  ii.  164. 

St.  Regulus,  ii.  164. 


46«:> 


INDEX. 


S:.  Eonan's  Well,  i.  295. 

St.  Salvator  College,  ii.  172. 

Sr.  Salrator,  collegiate  church 

of,  ii.  172. 
St.  Servanus,  ii.  79,  143,  156. 
Sc.  Vev.  ii.  3?>. 
Sc.  Waitheof,  L  243. 
Saintserf,  Thomas,  i.  171. 
Salisbury  Crags.  Edinburg,  i.  6. 
Salisbury,    William  M;„:^_ue. 

E.,ri  or.  i.  210. 
Saltan.  Fletcher  of,  L  88. 
Sanderson,  Alexander,  L  77. 
"Sandie  Carpetyne."  i.  28. 
Sandilands,    Sir    James,  Lord 

Torpichen,  i.  162. 
Sanly-K-owe.  i.  .47.  245. 
Sanquhar  Castle,  i.  321.  345. 
Sanquhar  Declaration,  ii.  37. 
Sartor  Jtemrtns,  i.  318. 
"Satvre  of  the  Thrie  Estaites." 

ii.  162. 

Sauchie  Burn,  battle  of,  L  230; 

ii.  139. 
Scarba  Island,  ii.  407. 
Scene*  and  Legend*  of  the  Xorth 

of  Scotland,  ii.  254. 
Scone  Palace  Grounds,  Perth,  ii. 

351. 

Scots  Magazine,  i.  113. 

"Scots  of  Goudielands,"  i.  275. 

Scot*  Worthies,  ii.  40. 

Scott,  Adam,  i.  283. 

Scon,  Anne,  i.  254. 

So-:.::.  Francis,    second    Earl  of 

Buecleuch,  i.  199. 
Scott,  Henry,  of  Harden,  i.  273. 
Scott,  Janet,  i.  248. 
Scott,  John,  of  Thirlestane,  L 

231. 

Scott,  Marian,  L  289. 
Scott,  Michael,  i.  243. 
Scott,  Michael,  the  Wizard,  i. 

291. 

Scott,  Robert,  i.  291. 

Scott,  Eobert,  of  Strickshaws.  i. 

247. 

Scott,  Sir  Gilbert,  ii.  58. 

Scott.  Sir  Walter,  l.  20.  53.  -4. 
90.  100,  105,  106,  109.  110.  112, 
113,  114,  118,  12$,  129,  133,  141, 
143,  145,  151,  177,  189, 194,200, 
203.  20-.  219,  22-.  23-.  243.  24-5. 
MS,  250,  258,  260,  272.  278.  276. 


-".  2>I.  2*4.  255.  2-6,  2r>.2?2. 
299,  302,  362, 370, 371, 373, 389 ; 
ii.  17, 19,  33.  37,  41,  58,  61,  67, 
71.  54.  55,  10"?.  114,  123,  17b, 
175.  150.  151.  155.  209.  2:4.  215. 
277.  290,  299,  343,  357,  363, 369, 
S7  5.  856.  8-55.  0..2.  412.  418.  420. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter  of  Branxholm, 
i.307. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  of  Buecleuch. 

i.  846,  247.  278. 
So  -::.  Sir  Walrer.  0:  Harden,  i. 

350. 

Scott,  Sir  William,  i.  291 :  ii.  121. 
|  Scott,  Sophia,  i.  253  :  ii.  365. 
Scott,  Walter     Auld  Wat  '  ,  i. 

247.         2.50.  2-1. 
Scott,  Walter,  of  Highehester.  i. 

199. 

J  Scott,  Walter,  of  Satchells,  L  280. 

Scot:  of  Buecleuch.  i.  245. 

Scott  of  Goudielands,  i.  259. 

Scottish  Confession  of  the  Re- 
formed Faith,  i.  50. 

Scottish  Regalia,  i.  118. 

So      :i  Branksholme.  i.  246. 

Scrape,  Lord,  i.  307,  308. 

Sea  bury.  Bishop  Samuel,  ii.  202. 

Searieki.  Earl  of.  i.  5^. 

Seaforth.  Earl  of,  iL  256. 

Seagate  Castle,  ii.  3. 

Selkirk,  i.  293,  294,  303. 

Selkirk.  Countess  of,  i.  367. 

Selkirk.  Earl  of.  i.  167. 

Se:.--n  House,  i.  220.  221. 

Seton,  Lord,  L  29,  221. 

Seton.  Alexander,  Earl  of  Pun- 
fermline.  i.  224. 

•Seton,  Alexander,  Lord  Fvvie.  ii. 
223. 

Seton,  George,  fourth  Lord,  i. 
166. 

Seton,  George,  tenth  Lord,  i. 
226. 

Seton,  Sir  Alexander,  i.  220. 

Seton.  Sir  Christopher,  ii.  20. 

Seymour.  Edward.  Duke  of  Som- 
erset, i.  22-5.  261.  263.  252. 

Shakespeare.  William,  i.  356  ;  ii. 
99,  353. 

Shanks,  John.  ii.  238. 

Sharp,  James,  i.  76. 

Sharp,  Archibald,  ii.  33.  37,  163, 
165,  170,  230. 


INDEX. 


461 


Sharp,  Sir  William,  ii.  170. 
Sharpe,  Charles  Kirkpatrick,  i. 

323. 

Shaw-Stewart,  Sir  Michael, ii. 111. 
Sheriffinuir,  battle  of,  i.  90. 
Shetland,  ii.  283. 
"  Shinty,"  game,  i.  259. 
Siddons,  Sarah,  ii.  412. 
Signet   Library,  Edinburgh,  i. 
126. 

Simpson,  E.  Blantyre,  i.  180. 

Sinclair  Bay,  ii.  274. 

Sinclair  Castle,  ii.  273. 

Sinclair,  Catherine,  i.  142. 

Sinclair,  Isobel,  ii.  262. 

Sinclair,  Sir  John,  i.  142,  354. 

Sismondi,  Jean  Charles  Leonard, 
ii.  265. 

Skipness  Castle,  ii.  401. 

Skye,  ii.  286. 

Slains  Castle,  ii.  215. 

Slateford,  i.  98. 

Smailholm  Tower,  i.  249. 

Small,  John,  i.  266. 

Smith,  Nannv,  ii.  224. 

Smith,  Sydne'y,  i.  110,  111. 

Smollet,  Tobias  George,  ii.  370. 

Society  of  Antiquaries  of  Scot- 
land, i.  117,  266. 

"Soldiers'  Holm,"  Loch  Trool, 
i.  387. 

11  Solemn  League  and  Covenant," 

i.  65  ;  ii.  29. 
Solway  Moss,  i.  157. 

Solwav  Moss,  battle  of,  i.  189, 
306,  308. 

Somerled,  Lord  of  the  Isles,  ii. 
107,  385. 

Somerset,  Edward  Seymour,  Duke 

of,  i.  225,  261,  263,  282. 
Somerville,  Lord,  i.  130. 
Soulis,  Lord  William,  i.  278. 
Sound  of  Islay,  ii.  407. 
Sound  of  Mull,  ii.  411. 
South  Uist,  island,  ii.  423. 
South  Ronaldshay,  ii.  275. 
Southey,  Robert,  i.  285  ;  ii.  183. 
Southgait,  Edinburgh,  i.  15. 
Spalding,  John,  ii.  196. 
"  Spanish  Blanks  Conspiracy," 

ii.  233. 

Spens,  Sir  Patrick,  ii.  227. 
Spottiswoode,  Bishop  John,  ii.  89, 
165. 


Spynie  Castle,  ii.  239. 
S tafia  Island,  ii.  432. 
Stair,  Countess  of,  i.  103. 
Stair,  Field- Marshal,   Lord,  i. 
394. 

Standard,  battle  of  the,  i.  352. 
"  Standing  stones  of  Torhouse," 
i.  387. 

Stanley,  Arthur  Penrhyn,  Dean, 

i.  392. 

Steell,  John,  i.  143. 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  i,  142, 

179,  219;  ii.  35,  126,  127,  334, 

337,  349. 

Stewrart,  Alaster,  of  Invernahyle, 

ii.  124. 

Stewart,  Alexander,  ii.  352. 
Stewart,  Archibald,  i.  98,  160. 
Stewart,  Bishop  David,  ii.  239. 
Stewart  Castle,  ii.  291. 
Stewart,  Earl  Patrick,  ii.  283. 
Stewart,  Francis,  Earl  of  Both- 
well,  i.  279. 
Stewart,  Henry,  i.  35. 
Stewart,  James,  Earl  of  Buchan, 

i.  295. 

Stewart,  Lady  Mary,  i.  238. 
Stewart,  Lord  James,  i.  33. 
Stewart,  Matthew,  i.  35. 
Stewart,  Sir  John,  ii.  138. 
Stewart,  Sir  John,  of  Grandtully, 

ii.  64. 

Stewart,  Sir  Robert,  ii.  24. 
Stewart,  Lord  Robert,  ii.  276. 
Stewart,  Walter,  Earl  of  Atholl, 

ii.  24,  378. 
Stewarts,  origin  of  the,  ii.  98. 
Stirling,  battle  of,  i.  341 ;  ii.  129. 
Stirling  Bridge,  battle  of,  ii.  7. 
Stirling  Castle,  ii.  128. 
Stirling,  Earl  of,  i.  70. 
Stirlingshire,  ii.  128. 
Stone  of  Destiny,  Perth,  ii.  381, 

411. 

Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  ii.  268. 
Strong,  Dr.,  ii.  93. 
Strathdearn,  ii.  286. 
Strathfillan,  ii.  362. 
Strathglass,  ii.  86. 
Strathmore,  Earl  of,  ii.  180. 
Strickland,  Agnes,  i.  198. 
Stobo  Castle,  i.  299. 
Stuart,  Charles  Edward,  the  Pre- 
tender, i.  97,  100,  222,  224,  225, 


462 


INDEX. 


264,  270;  ii.  132,  295,  300,  374, 
381. 

Stuart,  Henry,  Lord  Darnley,  i. 
35,  269  ;  ii.  156. 

Stuart,  James,  Earl  of  Moray,  i. 
44,  48,  157,  158,  268,  310,  378; 
ii.  108,  195. 

Stuart,  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  i. 
33,  166,  167,  207,  221,  226,  238, 
242,  266,  269,  369  ;  ii.  27,  108, 
113,  143,  148,  155,  156,  178,  195, 
289,  365,  382. 

Stuart,  Sir  John,  i.  129. 

Sufferings  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, ii.  90. 

Suffolk,  Duke  of,  i.  33. 

Sunny  Memories  of  ForeignLands, 
ii.  268. 

Sussex,  Earl  of,  i.  277. 

"  Sutherland  Clearances,"  the,  ii. 
264. 

Sutherland,  Earl  of,  i.  65. 
Sutherland,   John,   Earl  of,  ii. 
262. 

Sutherland,  William,  (seven- 
teenth) Earl  of,  ii.  263. 
Swanston,  i.  180. 
Sweetheart  Abbey,  i.  371. 
Swin  Castle,  ii.  402. 
Sydney,  Algernon,  ii.  38. 

"  Tables,"  the,  i.  64. 
Tain,  ii.  252. 

Tait,  Archibald  Campbell,  i.  145. 
"  Tarn  o'  Shanter,"  ii.  45. 
"  Tamlane,"  i.  292. 
Tantallon  Castle,  i.  214. 
Tarbat  Isthmus,  ii.  254. 
Tarbert  Castle,  ii.  402. 
Tay  Bridge,  ii.  177. 
Taylor,  John,  i.  56. 
Tavmouth  Castle,  ii.  357,  360. 
Tea-drinking,  i.  82. 
Terregles,  church  of,  i.  375. 
Terry,  C.  S.,  ii.  285. 
Tales  of  a  Grandfather,  ii.  22, 
153. 

Thackeray,  William  Makepeace, 
ii.  78. 

The  Abbey  of  Paisley,  ii.  106. 
The  Abbot,  i.  2,  370;  ii.  108. 
The  Antiquary,  ii.  182. 
"  The  Auchendrane  Tragedy,"  ii. 
17. 


"  The  Bailie  of  the  Abbey,"  i. 
132. 

The  Baronial  and  Ecclesiastical 
Architecture  of  Scotland,  i.  162. 

"The  Birks  of  Aberfeldie,"  ii. 
356. 

The  Book  of  Old  Edinburgh,  i. 
43. 

"  The  Braes  of  Yarrow,"  i.  283. 
The  Bride  of  Lammermoor,  i. 
226. 

The  Buke  of  Gude  Counsall  to  the 

King,  i.  15. 
"  The  Burning  of  Frendraught," 

ballad,  ii.  224. 
"  The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night," 

poem,  ii.  49. 
The  Croniklis  of  Scotland,  i.  11. 
"  The   Death  of  Poor  Mailie," 

poem,  ii.  47. 
"  The  Dowie  Dens  of  Yarrow," 

ballad,  i.  282. 
"  The  Douglas  Tragedy,"  i.  289. 
"  The  Duke's  Walk,"  Edinburgh, 

i.  81. 

The  Earls  of  Cromartie,  ii.  254. 
"  The  Epistle  to  Davie,"  poem,  ii. 
49. 

The  Fair  Ma  id  of  Perth,  ii.  357, 
378. 

The  Family  Legend,  ii.  412. 
"  The  Fifteen,"  i.  90. 
The  Fortunes  of  Nigel,  i.  53. 
The  Fourfold  State  of  Man,  i.  288. 
The  Genealogical  Magazine,  ii. 
99. 

The  Gentle  Shepherd,  i.  94. 

"  The  Giant's  Causeway,"  i.  142. 

The  Glasgow  School  of  Painting, 

ii.  95. 

"The  Gloomy  Night  is  Gather- 
ing Fast,"  ii.  50. 

The  Heart  of  Midlothian,  i,  90 ; 
ii.  392. 

"The  Heart  of  Midlothian," 
Edinburgh,  i.  25. 

The  Highlands  of  Scotland  in 
1750,  ii.  245,  249,  271. 

The  Historic  Families  of  Scot- 
land, i.  235. 

The  History  of  Sir  William  Wal- 
lace, ii.  44. 

The  History  of  the  Highland 
Clearances,  ii.  268. 


INDEX. 


463 


"  The  Holy  Fair,"  ii.  49. 
"  The  Killing  Time,"  ii.  37. 
The  Lady  of  the  Lake,  i.  250 ;  ii. 
363. 

The  Lady  Rock,  ii.  412. 

"The  Laird  of  Drum,"  ii.  206. 

"  The  Lamp  of  Lothian,"  i.  226. 

The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  i. 
189,  195,  200,  243,  247,  250,  276, 
281,  291,  302. 

"  The  Lord  of  the  Isles,"  ii.  386. 

The  Lord  of  the  Lsles,  ii.  413. 

The  Lyon  in  Mourning,  ii.  326. 

"  The  Maid  of  Needpath,"  i.  283. 

The  March,  i.  232. 

The  Maying  and  Disport  of  Chau- 
cer, i.  15. 

The  Mountain  Bard,  i.  285. 

"  The  Mountain  Daisy,"  poem, 
ii.  49. 

"  The  Mouse,"  poem,  ii.  49. 

"  The  Old  Man  of  Wick,"  ii.  274. 

The  Oryginale  Cronykil  of  Scot- 
land, ii.  143. 

The  Pennyless  Pilgrimage,  i.  57. 

The  Pentland  Rising,  ii.  35. 

The  Pilot,  i.  151. 

The  Pioneer,  i.  151. 

The  Pirate,  ii.  277. 

The  Poems,  Burns,  ii.  50. 

The  Public  Worship  of  Presby- 
terian Scotland,  i.  139. 

The  Rising  of  1745,  ii.  285. 

The  Scotsman,  i.  112,  159. 

The  Spy,  i.  151. 

"  The  Statutes  of  Iona,"  ii.  404. 
The  Talisman,  ii.  71,  178. 
"  The  Thrissill  and  the  Rois,"  i. 
19. 

The  Wizard's  Son,  ii.  181. 
"The  Wolf  of  Badenoch,"  ii. 
236. 

Thirlestane  Castle,  i.  173,  281. 
Thistle,  Order  of  the,  i.  82. 
Thistle  Street,  Edinhurgh,  i.  137. 
Thrieve  Castle,  i.  362. 
Thomas,  Henry,  Lord  Cockburn, 

i.  108,  109. 
Thomas    of    Erceldoune,  the 

Rhymer,  i.  263. 
Thompson,  Rev.  Mr.,  i.  186. 
Thomson,  James,  i.  264. 
Thurso,  ii.  270. 
1  ibbermore,  ii.  373. 


"  Tibbie  Shiels,"  i.  287. 

"  Tifty's  Nanny,"  ballad,  ii.  223. 

Tinnies  Castle,  i.  301. 

Tippermuir,  ii.  373. 

"  To  Ailsa  Crag,"  ii.  17. 

Tobacco  trade,  ii.  94. 

Tol booth  Kirk,  Church  of  St. 
Giles,  Edinburgh,  i.  46. 

Tolquhon  Castle,  ii.  212. 

Torhousemuir,  i.  387. 

Torpichen,  Lord,  James  Sandi- 
lands,  i.  162. 

Torpichen,  parish  of,  i.  162. 

Torthowald  Castle,  i.  316. 

"  Tory,"  origin  of  word,  ii.  30. 

Tower  Hotel,  Hawick,  i.  274. 

Tower  in  the  Veunel,  Edin- 
burgh, i.  21. 

Tower  of  Repentance,  i.  314. 

Tower  of  the  Burnetts  of  Barns, 

i.  299. 

Towie  Castle,  ii.  211. 
Traditions  of  Edinburgh,  i.  103  ; 

ii.  63. 

Train,  Joseph,  i.  377. 
Traquair  House,  i.  294. 
Traquair,  Lord,  i.  294. 
Traquair,  Mrs.  Phoebe,  i.  147. 
Treasure  Lsland,  ii.  349. 
Treaty  of  Union,  i.  118. 
Trinity,  Edinburgh,  i.  149. 
"Trot  of  Turriff,"  ii.  222. 
Tudor,  Margaret,  i.  35,  155,  198 ; 
ii.  62. 

"  Tulchan  Bishops,"  ii.  165. 
Tullibardine,  Marquis  of,  ii.  305, 

336,  342. 
Tulloch,  Bishop,  ii.  279. 
Turgat,  Bishop,  i.  4. 
"Turn-again,"  Abbotsford,  i.  247. 
Turnberry  Castle,  ii.  16. 
Turnbull,  William,  ii.  82. 
Turriff,  ii.  222. 
Tushielaw  Castle,  i.  282. 
Tweed  River,  i,  246,  296. 
Tweeddale,  i.  296. 
Tweeddale,  Lord  Yester,  (second) 

Earl  of,  i.  297. 
Tyndrum,  ii.  362. 
Tyronesians,  monks,  ii.  25. 
Tytler,  Patrick  Fraser,  ii.  58. 

Ulva  Island,  ii.  431. 
University  of  Aberdeen,  ii.  201. 


464 


INDEX. 


University  of  Edinburgh,  i.  49. 
University  of  Glasgow,  ii.  83,  88. 
University  of  St.  Andrews,  ii.170. 
Upper  Skeoch,  Irongray  parish, 

i.  377. 

Urquhart  Castle,  ii.  296. 

Usher,  Archbishop  James,  i.  379. 

Vale  of  Clyde,  ii.  79. 
Varrich  Castle,  ii.  270. 
Veitch,  Prof.,  i.  290,  296. 
Veitch,  Patrick,  i.  300. 
Veitch,  William,  i.  300. 
"Veto  Act,"  i.  138. 
Victoria  Hall,  Edinburgh,  i.  120. 
Victoria,  Queen,  i.  134;  ii.  106, 
139,  207,  374. 

Wade,  General,  i.  103 ;  ii.  305. 

Wake,  Thomas,  Lord,  i.  278. 

Walker,  Helen,  i.  373. 

Wallace,  Sir  Malcolm,  of  Ellers- 
lie,  ii.  5. 

Wallace,  Sir  William,  i.  7,  163, 
260,  321,  341  ;  ii.  4,  5,  7,  14,  15, 
54,  69,  111,  112,  129,  137,  178. 

"Wallace's  sword,"  i.  163. 

Walpole,  Horace,  ii.  393. 

Walsingham,  Sir  Francis,  i.  208. 

"  Water-poet,"  i.  56. 

Water-supply  of  Glasgow,  ii.  97. 

Watling  Street,  i.  259. 

Watt,  James,  ii.  98. 

War  of  Independence,  i.  8,  337 ; 

ii.  5. 

Wardlaw,  Bishop  Henry,  ii.  172. 

Wardlaw,  Lady,  ii.  2. 

Wardour,  Sir  Archie,  ii.  183. 

Warriston,  Lord,  i.  75. 

Waverley,  i.  250. 

Webton,  Sir  John,  ii.  58,  59. 

"  Wee  Vennel,"  Dumfries,  i.  333. 

Weir,  Major,  i.  77. 

"  Well-house  Tower,"  Edinburgh, 

i.  12,  119. 
Welsh,  Dr.  John,  i.  227. 
Welsh,  Jane,  i.  227,  311. 
Welsh,  John,  i.  372. 
Wemyss  Castle,  ii.  156. 
W'emyss,  Earl  of,  i.  298. 
Wemyss,  James,  (fourth)  Earl  of, 
i.  202. 

WTest  Bow,  Edinburgh,  i.  77. 
West  Lothian,  i.  153. 


Westray,  Orkney,  ii.  281. 

"  Whig,"  origin  of  word,  ii.  30. 

Whigatnore's  Raid,"  ii.  30. 

Whithorn,  priory  of,  i.  391. 

Wick,  ii.  274. 

"  Wicked  Wat,"  i.  301. 

Wigtown,  i.  387. 

William  III.,  i.  85,  218,  281,  344. 

William  and  Mary,  i.  83. 

William  of  Deloraine,  i.  243. 

"William  Tell  of  Scotland,"  i.154. 

William  the  Lion,  i.  7,  338,  353; 

ii.  128,  182,  260. 
William  the  Old,  Bishop,  ii.  278. 
Williams,  Rev.  John,  i.  145. 
"Willie  with  the  White  Dou- 
blet," i.  231. 
Willison,  David,  i.  111. 
Willocks,  John,  i.  33;  ii.  27. 
Wilson,  Sir  Daniel,  i.  10,  117. 
Wilson,  John,  i.  113,  142,  285, 

287,  288. 
Wilson  (the  Porteous  Riot),  i.  90. 
Winnin,  missionary,  ii.  24. 
"  Winter  :  a  Dirge,"  ii.  47. 
Winter,  James,  i.  232. 
Winton  House,  i.  226, 
Wintoun,    George,  (fifth)  Earl 

of,  i.  220. 
Wishart,  George,  i.  228;  ii.  27, 

166,  178,  185.  > 
Witch  superstition,  ii.  110. 
Wodrow,  Robert,  ii.  90. 
Woodcock,  Adam,  i.  1. 
"  Wolf  of  Badenoch,"  ii.  352. 
Woodstock,  ii.  33. 
Worcester,  battle  of,  ii.  32. 
Wordsworth,  William,  i.  285,  286, 

297,  304. 
Wyndham,  Admiral,  ii.  162. 
Wyntoun,  Andrew,  ii.  54,  56, 143, 

155. 

Wyshart,  Bishop  George,  ii.  82. 

Yarrow  Water,  i.  303. 

Yester,  Lord,  ii.  38. 

Yester,  Lord,   (second)  Earl  of 

Tweeddale,  i.  297. 
Yetholm,  i.  264. 

York  Building  Company,  i.  221. 
York  Place,  Edinburgh,  i.  142. 

Zetland,  Sir  Lawrence  Dundas, 
Earl  of,  ii.  276. 


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